Baguette: Classic French Bread with an Overnight Poolish (3 Loaves)

Baguette: A Crackling Crust, a Chewy Crumb, and a Starter Made the Night Before

In France, bread is something people buy day after day, often from the bakery down the street, and a baguette is cut and shared at the table. The French Ministry of Culture's heritage record describes that daily trip to the neighborhood bakery as part of how people meet and talk, and describes the baguette sliced for breakfast tartines, cut into fingers for soft-boiled eggs, and split for a ham-and-butter sandwich.

This recipe brings that bread into a home kitchen. It follows King Arthur Baking's Classic Baguettes, which makes three loaves using a poolish: a loose starter of flour, water and a tiny pinch of yeast that ferments for about 14 hours before the main dough is mixed. Most of that time is simply waiting. The hands-on work is spread across the next day.

There are three places where a home baguette tends to succeed or fail: fermentation, shaping and steam. The steps below give the times from the recipe source, but they also tell you what to look for in the bowl, under your hands and in the oven, because room temperatures and home ovens vary.

The Bread from the Bakery Down the Street

The baguette belongs to the whole of France, not to one region. The Ministry of Culture's inventory record describes it as a long, thin wheat bread found across the country, and notes that the ordinary baguette has no legal definition. What it offers instead are common markers of shape and texture, and it records that customers even have preferences about how dark the crust should be.

Its daily life runs through the meal. The same record describes the breakfast or café tartine, the thin mouillettes for dipping into a soft-boiled egg, the jambon-beurre of ham and butter eaten as a casse-croûte, and the habit of cutting the loaf at the family table. Buying the bread is itself social: in the Ministry's 2022 announcement, going to fetch the baguette is described as a moment of sharing and connection.

In 2022, the artisanal know-how and culture of baguette bread were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as announced by the French Ministry of Culture. That announcement names the basic ingredients as flour, water, yeast and/or levain, and salt.

As for history, the heritage record points to earlier long breads, such as the flûte, before the modern name spread, and does not reduce the baguette to a single inventor or a single origin story. Differences between bakeries come from flour, fermentation, shaping and how dark the bake is taken, not from fixed regional recipes. At home, you build the same qualities through fermentation and baking.

Ingredients: 3 Baguettes, Poolish and Final Dough

A digital scale makes this recipe far easier to repeat. The yeast amounts are kept in teaspoons as in the original recipe; they are not converted to grams here. The salt is given by weight only, because the volume of salt changes with how fine it is.

Flours are not interchangeable one-for-one. US all-purpose flour, French T55 and the bread or "strong" flours sold elsewhere are different products, so don't assume they behave the same way. If you use bread flour, expect the dough to feel firmer, as the source recipe notes. That is not a reason to pour in extra water straight away; first get to know how your flour feels.

Method: From an Overnight Poolish to Three Loaves

Troubleshooting: Go Back to the Step That Shaped the Problem

Most baguette problems trace back to one earlier stage. Rather than fixing the symptom, return to the step where it started.

Serving and Storage: Tartines, Mouillettes and a Paper Bag

The ways of eating described in the French heritage record are simple, and they work just as well with a home-baked loaf:

• Tartine: a length of baguette spread with butter and jam, for breakfast.
• Mouillettes: thin strips for dipping into a soft-boiled egg.
• Jambon-beurre: baguette split and filled with ham and butter, eaten as a casse-croûte.
• At the table: cut the loaf and share it through the meal.
• Croûtons: thin slices of baguette are also used as croûtons.

For storage, the source recipe suggests keeping the baguettes in a paper bag overnight. For longer storage, freeze them, then rewarm after thawing.

Variations

Other recipes, other balances

Baguette recipes differ widely, and they should not be mixed into one formula. A French home recipe published by Boulanger uses 375g T55 flour, 215g water, 7g salt and 5g dry yeast for three loaves, baked at 240°C for 25 minutes. A professional recipe from Lesaffre uses a long, cold fermentation (at least 16 hours at 3°C, then 90 minutes at 20°C) and a short bake at 250°C with light steam for 18 minutes, with its own specialist levain and yeast. These are useful for seeing how the craft varies, but the steps above follow the King Arthur Baking home recipe only.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I skip the poolish?

The poolish is the backbone of this recipe, and the amounts and times above are written around it. The lower-yeast alternative mentioned above needs separate verification; this article does not provide a verified method for omitting the poolish.

Can I use bread flour instead of all-purpose?

You can, but the source recipe notes the dough will be stiffer. Bread flours, US all-purpose flour and French T55 are not the same product, so don't expect identical results, and avoid making large water changes before you've felt the dough.

Do I really need steam?

The source recipe bakes with steam from boiling water poured into a preheated cast-iron pan. Use oven mitts and keep your face and hands clear of the steam.

How should I store leftover baguettes?

Overnight in a paper bag, as the source recipe suggests. For longer, freeze them and rewarm after thawing.

What is a "baguette de tradition"?

You may see the word tradition used for baguettes in France. This article does not set out the legal conditions attached to that name; for those, consult the official French regulations. The French Ministry of Culture's record notes that the ordinary baguette itself has no legal definition.

For more dishes from the same country, see recipes from France.

Sources