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For a home oven, divide the dough into 250 to 350 g pieces and preshape them into short cylinders. After 20 to 30 minutes, flatten each one, fold it in thirds, seal it, then roll it from the middle outward to about 14 to 15 in, the length most home baking steels and sheets take. Proof seam up in a floured couche.
Size: 250 to 350 g each, rolled to 14 to 15 in for a 16 in steel. Proof: in a floured linen couche, pleated between loaves. Bake: on a hot steel or stone with plenty of steam.
Measure your steel or stone first: the loaf must fit diagonally or straight with room to spread.
Three to five long cuts almost along the length, at a very shallow angle, each one starting a little before the previous one ends so that the cuts overlap. Or snip a wheat-stalk pattern with scissors. See how to score bread.
Load the baguettes with a peel or an upturned baking sheet dusted with semolina, or on parchment rated for that heat, onto a stone or steel in an oven preheated to 450°F, add steam at once, and bake 24 to 28 minutes until very deep golden, as in King Arthur's classic baguettes. If you take the steam tray out, do it after about 20 minutes. See steam methods.
As long as your oven allows: 14 to 15 in suits most home steels and sheets.
A heavily floured linen or cotton tea towel, pleated between the loaves.
Keep what you own when it does the job. These are the other exact models we profile.
A 24 × 59.5 in linen proofing cloth for baguettes: pleated between the loaves, it holds 2 to 8 of them while they proof.
A 23 × 4 in beech board with a tapered edge, for flipping a proofed baguette off the couche and sliding it onto your steel or stone.
A quarter-inch carbon-steel surface for an oven with room for its full footprint.
An aluminum peel for an accessible flat baking surface.
A ceramic base with three ribbed channels and a vented lid that bakes three baguettes from a 3-cup flour recipe.
