5 minute no-knead baguette

The fastest, most foolproof method to make French baguette at home. It only takes five minutes of work and is designed for easy clean up. Take two minutes to prep this evening, and tomorrow morning you’ll have crunchy, fluffy, warm bread.

This recipe makes two small baguettes around 15 inches long. It is scaled for one packet of active dry yeast, so you can easily scale it up if you want more loaves.

Ingredients

• 475g bread flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 packet active dry yeast (7g or 2 tsp)
• 365g filtered water

Directions

1. Mix flour and salt in a bowl, then add yeast and water.
2. Combine with a wooden spoon until it just comes together (2 min).
3. Cover and let rise overnight (8-10h).
4. Preheat your oven to the highest temperature it can go (ideally 500F/260C or more).
5. Remove the lowest oven rack which you will use as the baking surface, and line it with parchment paper.
6. Move dough to a heavily floured surface or use a baking sheet for easy cleanup. Scrape from the edges of the bowl using a hard plastic spatula to avoid collapsing the air bubbles.
7. Add more flour on top of the dough.
8. Form into a one big rough oblong shape.
9. Cut dough in half lengthwise.
10. Transfer each half directly onto the oven rack lined with parchment paper.
11. Pull ends to stretch into a rough baguette shape.
12. Bake for 25 minutes on the lowest rack. Increase time if necessary, to reach a golden brown color.

Tips

• For big air pockets avoid pressing down on the dough at any stage.
• To create even more airy pockets, you can replicate the steam used in commercial ovens. Add a baking tray with water or ice cubes at the bottom of your oven right before you insert the baking rack with the dough.
• Preheat oven for 15 minutes or more, and use a baking stone if you have one.