How to Make a Bouchon Bakery Demi Baguette

Baking bread is freaking hard. Really makes me appreciate what actually goes into a baguette. It also takes an insane amount of time. For a baguette, if you start perfectly at 10:00am, they might be ready at 4:00pm. So, think about those fresh baguettes that are delivered in the morning…

For a little inspiration, we actually went up to Bouchon Bakery to get some bread and pastries over this past weekend. We figured there would barely be anyone there, but nope. Probably ~30 people in a line around the block, as it is one of the only place actually open in all of Yountville. Still worth it, basically everything at Bouchon Bakery hits the spot, and they have something for everything. Maybe when I work up a little courage, I will try to make the delicious macarons we got from there. But then again, I might rather drive for an hour, pay $3.75/macaron than actually make them because of the technical nature of them.

I have always wanted to make good bread, and this is a great start in the right direction. The shape at the end did not come out like I was hoping, but the taste was still amazing.

In the Bouchon Bakery book, they ask you to read a whole bread section before doing any of the bread recipes. It’s about 15 pages about the basics of bread, tools needed, how to fold and roll etc., because of how in depth it is. I knew that I was not going to be a pro on the first shot, but I have a LONG ways to go until I vaguely consider myself a bread maker. I obviously couldn’t include all techniques there, but tried to describe them the best that I could for instructions. Any questions feel free to drop me a comment.

Cookbook – Bouchon Bakery

Ingredients –

Poolish –

All purpose flour – 83 grams
Instant Yeast – .1 grams – a pinch
Water – 75 F degress

Dough for the Demi Baguettes –

All purpose flour – 249 grams
Instant Yeast – .7 grams – 1/4 teaspoon
Water – 75F Degrees
Fine sea salt – 5 grams – 3/4 teaspoon

Tools –

Scale
Stand mixer
Baking linen ideally – I used a sil pat
Baking stone, or pizza stone, or baking sheet
EXTREMELY OPTIONAL – River rocks, and a metal chain
Pan for the oven to help produce steam

Step 1 – Plan your bake

Bread takes a long time and cannot be rushed.

Making a poolish – waiting 12-15 hours, making the dough, proofing. It all adds up fast. Be sure to plan your entire bake before proceeding, and make sure to stick to that time line. For a baguette, the timeline will look something like this:

Poolish – Only takes ~5 minutes to make, but need 12-15 hours to sit
Mix the dough – 45 minutes
Proofing and stretching – 3 hours
Divide and preshape – 30 minutes
Final Proofing – 1 hour
Baking – ~30 minutes

I would highly suggest making the poolish the night before and then starting the bake the next morning. Bread doesn’t seem like it should be hard, but there are so many steps where things can go wrong if you are not paying attention to the details.

Step 2 – Make the poolish

Combine the flour and yeast in a small bowl and mix. Pour in the water and mix until thoroughly combined, should have the consistency of pancake batter. Cover loosely and let sit at room temperature for 12-15 hours.

Step 3 – Mix the dough

Spray a large bowl with non stick spray, set aside.

Place the flour and yeast in your stand mixer bowl, fit with the dough hook, give a quick mix on the lowest setting. Pour in about half of the water into the poolish to help release it, add it to the mix with the rest of the water. Mix on low for 3 minutes, add the salt, mix for 1 minute. Continue to mix for another 20 minutes.

Step 4 – Proofing and Stretching

Release the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat, stretch, and fold the dough.

So… Think of the ball as a rectangle. From the top of the ball, grab the bottom of the dough, pull up and over towards the center. Repeat with the bottom, then left, and right. and flip the dough over. This will be stretching the dough, and the dough will feel sticky and tacky in the process. Place the dough in the nonstick prepared bowl. Cover and set aside.

Set timer for 1 hour.

Repeat the stretching and folding after the first hour. Cover for another hour

Repeat stretching and folding again after the next hour. Cover for another hour.

Step 5 – Divide, Preshape, and shape the dough

Have the linen or sil pat on a baking sheet, lightly flour.

Release the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat into a rectangle to get out any bubbles, only add flour to stop the dough from sticking to the surface. Divide the dough into 3 pieces, roughly 190 grams each. The dough might not look like a lot, but it all works out in the end. Demi baguettes are smaller baguettes.

Start shaping the dough long. I am not going to recreate the wheel here, there are the directions directly from TK.

Lift the bottom of the dough and fold it over two thirds of the dough
Fold over the top and bring it down so it covers two thirds of the dough
Use the heel of your hand to create an indentation in the middle of the dough
Fold the dough so the top and bottom edges meet and use the heel of your hand to seal the seam, turn the dough seam side down
With your hands on top of one another, rock the dough back and forth, applying gentle pressure while slowly moving your hands apart, try to keep the diameter consistent
As you continue to roll the dough, it will increase in length and the structure will tighten

Place the dough in the linen, fold or bunch the linen to create small walls on both sides to help the dough maintain its shape.

Lightly cover for 1 hour.

Step 6 – Bake

Finally. We here. Took a little longer than you thought right? Let’s finish this.

Around 45 minutes of the proof, preheat the oven to 460F. Place in the baking / pizza stone on the top rack, and the pan in the bottom rack. The pan is there to create steam to help produce a great crust. Right after we put in the dough, we are going to pour 1 1/2 cups of water into the pan and then immediately close the oven door.

When ready, take out the ripping hot stone and transfer your bread to it. Score the bread with a sharp knife with three small cuts, at a slight diagonal, short ways on top of the bread. Seriously be careful and do not forget it is ripping hot.

Put the bread into the oven, add water to the pan in the oven, immediately close the door and bake for 20 minutes, or until the bread feels lighter than you would expect, or 200F internal temperature. Let cool completely.

Andddd that’s all folks. Kind of a marathon I know, I did not quite achieve the shape or crust I was hoping for, but I learned a crazy amount in the process. Give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Difficulty of ingredients to find – 2/5 stars – you might have these ingredients at home
Perceived difficulty going into the recipe – 4/5 stars – bread takes a few tries to get better
Difficulty after recipe – 4/5 stars – still have some work to do on my baguettes
Time taken – 5/5 stars – More than 4 hours
Taste – 4.5/5 stars – I mean, fresh bread, it still tastes amazing
Make again? 5/5 stars – it’s an area where I want to be proficient