Peanut 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 uses just four ingredients — bread flour, sea salt, instant yeast, and water — so there's nothing hidden, nothing processed, and absolutely no risk of sneaky peanut contamination that can come with store-bought breads made on shared lines. The magic here is in the slow cold ferment, which builds that complex, slightly tangy flavor you'd expect from a proper French bakery without any fancy equipment or additives. A hot oven, a burst of steam from a lower baking sheet, and a confident score with a razor blade are what give you that blistered, hollow-sounding crust that shatters when you break it open. The open, chewy crumb inside is everything a good baguette should be. It takes some patience across the stretch-and-fold stages and the overnight rest, but the hands-on time is genuinely minimal and the payoff is enormous. Slice it warm with butter, tear it alongside soup, or just eat 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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