Oats Free Classic French Baguettes
Few breads are as satisfying to pull from the oven as a proper baguette, with its crackling crust and open, chewy crumb. The recipe builds flavor the right way, starting with an overnight poolish that gives the final loaf a subtle tang and complexity you simply cannot rush. For anyone avoiding oats, this is a genuinely clean formula — just bread flour, yeast, salt, and water, with no grains or additives sneaking in to complicate things. Store-bought baguettes can be a minefield of unexpected ingredients, so baking your own puts you fully in control of every gram that goes into the dough. The stretch-and-fold technique develops gluten beautifully without a stand mixer, and the steam-injection method in the oven is what creates that signature shatteringly crisp crust. Scoring the loaves at a confident angle lets them bloom dramatically in the oven, turning a simple slash into something that looks genuinely bakery-worthy. Let them cool on a wire rack before slicing — the wait is hard, but the crumb will thank you.
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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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