French baguette

A French baguette is a long loaf with a crisp crust and chewy crumb. PJ Hamel's home-baking recipe uses a poolish, a flour-and-water starter fermented with a little yeast, before the final dough is mixed.

The recipe describes a deeply golden crust and an interior with many holes. Its notes explain that a slower rise develops flavour in this otherwise simple flour, water, salt and yeast bread.

The poolish rests overnight. The final dough is kneaded, allowed to rise and folded before being divided into three loaves. Shaping, another rise and shallow cuts prepare the baguettes for baking with steam.

The loaves cool after baking. Leftovers are reheated before serving. The recipe offers active dry or instant yeast, an optional sourdough-starter substitution in the poolish, and an unbleached bread-flour alternative.

UNESCO inscribed the artisanal know-how and culture of baguette bread in 2022. Its account describes small batches baked through the day and skills passed on through bakery work, apprenticeships and school training.

The baguette's French cultural setting includes daily bakery visits and bread eaten at family meals, restaurants, workplaces and school cafeterias. These practices describe the bread's social life rather than one fixed recipe.