Nightshade Free Classic French Baguettes
There is something almost magical about pulling a batch of golden, crackling baguettes from your own oven, and this recipe delivers that bakery-worthy result with nothing but flour, water, yeast, and salt. For anyone navigating a nightshade-free lifestyle, bread can be a surprisingly tricky category — many store-bought loaves and bakery items sneak in unexpected additives or are produced alongside seasoning blends that contain paprika or other off-limits ingredients. This recipe sidesteps all of that entirely, relying on just four clean, straightforward ingredients with zero ambiguity. The overnight poolish is the real secret here, building a deep, complex flavor that makes these baguettes taste like they took far more effort than they did. Stretch-and-fold technique develops the gluten beautifully without any special equipment, and the steam-baking method gives you that signature shatteringly crisp crust with a chewy, open crumb inside. Scoring the dough at a confident angle lets each loaf bloom dramatically in the oven, producing those gorgeous diagonal ears that make a homemade baguette look genuinely impressive. Slice them warm alongside soup, pile on your favorite toppings, or just tear into one straight off the rack — you earned it.
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Learn more →Ingredients
4 servings
For the poolish
- ¼ tsp active dry yeast
- ½ cup cool water (about 70°f / 21°c)
- ½ cup bread flour
For the dough
- 1 ½ tsp active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water (about 95°f / 35°c)
- 3 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 ½ tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- 1
Make the poolish: In a large mixing bowl, stir together 1/4 tsp yeast, 1/2 cup cool water, and 1/2 cup bread flour until no dry flour remains. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 8–12 hours (overnight), until the poolish is bubbly, domed, and smells pleasantly yeasty.
- 2
Make the dough: Add 1 1/2 tsp yeast and 1 cup warm water to the poolish and stir to combine. Add 3 cups bread flour and 1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, then mix with a stiff spatula or your hand until a shaggy dough forms with no dry patches. Cover and rest for 20 minutes.
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