Macadamia Free Crusty French Baguette
Few things in the kitchen feel as satisfying as pulling a deeply golden, crackling baguette from your own oven. This recipe relies on just four pantry staples — bread flour, sea salt, instant yeast, and water — so there's nothing hidden, nothing complicated, and absolutely no tree nuts anywhere near your loaf. The magic here is time: a long, cold overnight ferment builds the kind of complex, slightly tangy flavor that most home bakers assume is impossible without a professional bakery. Stretch-and-fold technique replaces the need for heavy kneading, and the steam-injection method during baking is what gives you that signature shatteringly crisp crust with a chewy, open crumb inside. Scoring the dough at a shallow angle right before it hits the blazing hot stone lets each baguette bloom dramatically and develop those gorgeous diagonal ears. Once they come out of the oven sounding hollow and smelling incredible, the hardest part is waiting the full 20 minutes before you slice in. Serve with good butter, a bowl of soup, or honestly just tear into it standing over the counter — no judgment.
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Learn more →Ingredients
8 servings
- 3 cups (360g) bread flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ tsp instant yeast
- 1 ¼ cups (295ml) cool water (about 65°f/18°c)
Instructions
- 1
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the bread flour, salt, and instant yeast. Pour in the cool water and stir with a wooden spoon or your hand until no dry flour remains and a shaggy dough forms. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- 2
With damp hands, perform a series of stretch-and-folds: grab one side of the dough, stretch it upward until it resists, then fold it over the center. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat three more times for a total of 4 folds. Cover and repeat this process two more times at 30-minute intervals (3 sets total). After the final fold, the dough should feel noticeably smoother and hold its shape briefly when released.
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