Chicken Free Classic French Baguettes

Few things in the bread world beat the satisfaction of pulling a genuinely crusty, golden baguette out of your own oven. This recipe is built around a classic poolish — a simple overnight starter made from just yeast, water, and bread flour — that develops deep, complex flavor without any fuss. The entire ingredient list is beautifully minimal: yeast, water, bread flour, and sea salt, which means there's nothing hidden to second-guess and no animal-derived ingredients to navigate. A series of stretch-and-fold techniques builds the gluten structure that gives these loaves their signature chew, while a blast of steam in the oven creates that impossibly thin, crackling crust. Scoring each baguette at a confident angle lets the dough bloom dramatically in the oven, producing those gorgeous, ear-like ridges that make a homemade loaf look like it came straight from a Parisian boulangerie. The result is a deep mahogany crust, an open and airy crumb, and a hollow thump when you tap the bottom — all the signs of a truly great bake. Tear into one warm with good butter, or slice it up for sandwiches; either way, this is the kind of bread that makes people ask where you bought it.

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