Baguettes with Freshly Milled Flour
Crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, these baguettes with freshly milled flour are simply delicious! Made with only 5 ingredients and mixed in less than 15 minutes, these baguettes rise overnight in the fridge for a perfect spring and texture.
Servings: 3 15" baguettes
Calories: 640kcal
Equipment
- Grain mill for freshly milled flour
- Stand mixer optional - see notes
Ingredients
- 4½ cups fresh milled hard red wheat flour (630g)
- 2¼ cups warm water (530g)
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon honey or sugar
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
Instructions
- Mix and hydrate: Add the flour, salt, and honey to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour in the warm water and mix until no dry flour remains. The dough is going to be sticky. Cover and let rest for 40 minutes.
- Add yeast: Sprinkle the yeast evenly over the dough. Using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix on low speed for 1 minute to incorporate, then increase to medium-low and mix for 2-3 minutes. The dough should become smoother and elastic, pulling away from the sides of the bowl but still feeling soft and slightly tacky.Note: Just mix until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. (see picture for reference)
- Refrigerate overnight: Cover the bowl tightly and place it in the refrigerator for 12–16 hours.
- Divide and pre-shape: Remove the dough from the refrigerator and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 3 equal portions. (see notes below)Gently shape each piece into a loose rectangle. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes.
- Shape baguettes: Gently stretch each rectangle into a longer shape. Fold the top third down, press to seal, then fold the bottom third up and seal again. Roll gently from the center outward until each loaf is about 14–15 inches long.Place on a towel, with the seam side up, and cover for about another 30-45 minutes.
- Bake: Place a bread pan with hot water into the bottom rack of your oven. Preheat to 475°F.While the oven is preheating, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly dust with flour. Transfer the baguettes to the parchment paper-lined baking sheet and place them seam-side down. Score the top of each baguette with 3 quick diagonal slashes.Bake for 15 minutes.Carefully remove the steam pan with hot pads, rotate the loaves, and continue baking for another 15 minutes, or until the crust is deeply golden and crisp.
- Cool: Transfer the baguettes to a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing.
Notes
- This recipe can be made without a stand mixer. Mix the dough by hand, then perform three sets of stretch and folds, 20 minutes apart, before putting the dough in the fridge and continuing with the recipe as written.
- You can use a baking stone for these, just preheat the stone in the oven first. And be careful when transferring the baguettes to the hot stone!
- I use hard red wheat for this recipe, and I highly recommend measuring the flour by weight to get accurate measurements.
- To check if they are done, you can carefully tap the top of them. If they feel hard and sound hollow, they are ready! Just don't burn yourself.
- Flour is measured after it has been milled — don't measure the whole berries. (especially when measuring by volume rather than weight)
- You can divide this recipe into as many portions as you want. If you make the recipe as I have it, without doubling, it will make 3 baguettes around 14-15" long.
- You will notice I used hard red wheat for this recipe. If you have hard red wheat, this is a great way to use it. Most people find it's really grainy in most recipes, which is why people tend not to bake with it, but for these cold-proofed baguettes, it turns out perfectly. No grainy taste, just pure delicious baguettes.