Black Pepper Free Classic French Baguettes

Few things in the kitchen feel as rewarding as pulling a batch of golden, crackling baguettes from the oven, and this recipe delivers that bakery-level result with nothing more than yeast, water, flour, and sea salt. The ingredient list is naturally free of any peppercorn or spice, so there's no label-reading anxiety and no need to swap anything out — it's clean and simple from start to finish. The process begins with an overnight poolish, a loose pre-ferment that develops deep, complex flavor before the main dough even comes together. From there, a series of stretch-and-folds builds the kind of open, chewy crumb that makes a baguette worth tearing into. The real magic happens in the oven: a blast of steam in the first ten minutes creates that signature shatteringly crisp crust, while the high heat drives the loaves to a deep mahogany brown. Scoring each baguette at an angle just before baking lets the dough bloom beautifully and gives you those dramatic, ear-like ridges along the top. Let them cool on a wire rack long enough for the crumb to set, then slice in — the crust will crackle, the inside will be soft and airy, and the whole house will smell incredible.

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