One Rise Baguette: Fast and Fancy
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There are three bread recipes that I consider to be “staples” at Clucky Dickens Farm, and One Rise Baguette is one of them. It’s a fast, fancy bread that can be used for sub sandwiches or as a great side to spaghetti, soup, salad, or stew. The best thing? From start to finish, this bread takes approximately 90 minutes.
Not even kidding.
Ingredients for One Rise Baguette:
2 cups warm water
1 pkg yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp bulk yeast – this is my favorite to use)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
About 5 cups flour (you can use all white or substitute half for whole wheat flour)
Procedure for One Rise Baguette:
In a large bowl, mix the water, yeast, and sugar and let it sit for a few minutes. Then stir in the salt and 2 cups of the flour.
Stir, and when the 2 cups of flour is mixed in, add another cup…and another cup…
…until you can’t easily stir it by hand anymore. When you get to this point, it’s time to take the dough out of the bowl and put it on a lightly floured board or counter top.
(Note: Bread baking is as much of an art as it is a science. I have never made a batch of bread that has taken the same amount of flour as it took the time before. The amount of flour you add has to do with lots of different things. The amount of humidity in the air, what brand of flour you’re using, what you had for breakfast, how far away the kids are… If you find that after adding three cups of flour the dough is ready to knead go for it. If after adding five cups it’s still pretty sticky, keep adding little bits of flour and then stir.)
Now it is time to knead. Continue to add little amounts of flour—a small handful at a time— and knead until the dough is still moist and soft, but not sticky. If the bread is sticking to your hands or your floured surface, it’s not ready yet. Kneading takes time. A good 5 minutes at least. Sometimes 8. Occasionally 10. Don’t wimp out.)
Now here is where making a baguette gets fun.
Divide your dough ball into four equal lumps and let them rest 5-10 minutes.
Take one of the lumps and roll it into a snake. (If the snake keeps shrinking and trying desperately to become a ball again, let it rest a few more minutes and try again.) Take another lump and do the same thing.
Now, lining up the two snakes side by side, pinch their top ends together and place one snake over the other to make a twist.
Keep twisting snake over snake until you reach the end of the loaf, and then pinch the bottom ends together. Then, repeat the process with the remaining two lumps of dough until you have a second loaf.
Place your dough on a greased cookie sheet—or as I recently discovered was actually a thing—a baguette/french bread pan.
Let the loaves rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. (Because our house is chilly, I use our oven. Before staring a bread recipe, I turn our oven on to its lowest setting, preheat, and then turn the oven off. Then when it’s time for rising, I let the dough rise in the still warm oven.)
After the loaves have risen…
…it’s time to bake. 20 minutes at 425 is all it takes for a one rise baguette. Now that’s fast and fancy!
At our house, this bread is used in lots of ways, but one of our favorites is toasted sub sandwiches.
But trust me; this ain’t Subway. You can’t eat a 12 inch on these loaves.
Homemade bread has an amazing way of filling you right up, especially if you substitute half the flour in the recipe for whole wheat flour.
There you have it, a fast and fancy bread that you can totally handle making. I know you can do it!
One Rise Baguette
A fast and fancy bread that can ready for your table in just about 90 minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 env. yeast, or 2 1/2 tsps. bulk yeast
- 1 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 5 cups flour, approximately
Instructions
1. In a large bowl, mix the water, yeast, and sugar and let it sit for a few minutes.
2. Stir in the salt and 2 cups of the flour. Continue to add flour 1 cup at a time until it's difficult to stir by hand.
3. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead 8-10 minutes, adding flour as needed.
4. After dough is kneaded and no longer sticky, divide the dough ball into four smaller lumps.
5. Let the lumps rest for five minutes, then roll each lump into a long rope 12-18 inches long.
6. Lay two ropes along side each other and pinch one end together. Twist the ropes together (rope over rope, and again) and then pinch together at the other end. Repeat with other two ropes.
7. Place both loaves on a greased cookie sheet, and let rise for 30 minutes.
8. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes.
Spending time in the kitchen today? Here are a few other things you might want to try…
Ice Cream Caramel Rolls: Special Breakfast Treat
Homemade Pizza: Make Your Own From Scratch
How easy! I’m totally going to make this this weekend! Thanks so much I totally love it. Hmm maybe I’ll try braiding it instead of twisting 🙂
That bread looks fantastic! And I love the well-seasoned baking sheet you used. Reminds me of home, using my moms. 🙂
Thank you for the artful tips, they are great! lol This is going to become my main go-to loaf recipe, thank you for sharing it with us.
hi! I’m writing this after finishing a very hot, crispy, straight-out-of-the-oven piece of the bread.
I’m a very mediocre baker so it seemed like a bread I’d manage to make and love. I can’t stand the soft, sweetish breads sold in our local grocery story. I thought I’d share a couple of questions and fresh insights for folks like me –
I reached the rolling stage pretty well (yes, don’t give up. It was so sticky and it took quite a while to get it right but it does get there).
What’s the approximate length of the loaf pre-rising? how wide? the finished loaves are about a bit more than a foot long and 2.5 inches wide. They didn’t rise much even in my warm kitchen but did quite a bit of it during baking, so don’t despair!
Apparently, when waiting for fresh bread, 20 minutes seem like forever. I kept checking and it wouldn’t brown, despite the wonderful smell it emitted. And then I noticed the time has not elapsed yet. It took a tad longer but they came out lovely.
and as for the taste – yummy! a full body on the inside and for now – such a crispy crust. I can already think of a few additions and flavor variations we’d love (like garlic, caraway, etc). Definitely will be adopting it as my new, possible, bread 🙂 thank you!
I made this bread today and we Loved It!!! It was so tasty and easy to make. Thank you so much for this recipe!
I’m glad it turned out for you and that you liked it!
Instead of hand kneading – would it work just to use my kitchen-aid with a dough hook?
I would assume yes! I’ve never had a mixer with a dough hook but have lots of friends who do and they do any bread recipes much the same as hand kneading. Good luck!
I use the kitchen aid for faster results. Instead of kneading my hand and adding flour, keep adding flour after this recipe is over until it sticks to the hook and “cleans” the bowl. Then run on stage 2 approximately 2-3 minutes. The. Follow as otherwise directed. Done it several times. Comes out wonderful.
This recipe is amazing! I’ve already baked 8 loaves (we love bread). The last ones had a nice crunch on the bottom while the rest was soft. No brick loaves here!
Braided bread is so pretty. And delicious.
I will try this recipe this weekend! I have had a ton of trouble with two rise breads. They never rise the second time! If I were to pre-make my dough, do you have any suggestions on how to store in the fridge and how to proceed after storage? Would I roll out and twist up into the baguette shape then refrigerate? Or would you not recommend pre-making the dough for this recipe? Thanks!!
I’ve only ever made one recipe that involved the fridge and it was a bread that was required to raise in the fridge. 😉 This bread is so fast, I guess I never thought to try refrigerating the dough. My totally-and-honestly-a-guess would be to refrigerate BEFORE shaping…but that’s just a guess. If you try it, let me know if it works!
I’ve tried freezing because even 2 loaves is too much for us. I usually freeze after shaping into balls in an (spray) oiled freezer bag (with a layer of plastic from the bag between them). Then allow to thaw in fridge overnight, countertop, and braid. Plan on a little more yeast though in case some die isn’t that freezing process.
Thank you! Oh my, I’ve never had luck before with yeast bread until your recipe! This is a life changer! Next up, I want to try the country crust bread.
do you use instant yeast and can you put parchment paper on the bake sheet
I generally buy SAF yeast (instant yeast) but you can use either instant or active dry. Active dry yeast *has to be* dissolved in water before it can be used, instant doesn’t need to be. I’ve never used parchment paper when baking bread, but I know there are many people who do. If you try it out, let us know how it works for you!
Amy, absolutely loved this recipe. I am a novice at bread baking. So, the bottom was done beautifully but the top did not brown. Should I brush it with egg or oil? My mom used to flip her loaves over. I tried this, it did not work. Despite the lack of browning, the bread was delicious! Hoping you can let me know what I can do to remedy this. Thank you so much!
You can try checking the temp of your oven with an oven thermometer (to make sure the top heating element is working properly). Another idea is to check the pans you’re using. Sometimes a thinner, less substantial pan will make the bottom of the bread brown before the top ever does. You can also, as you said, try giving it an egg wash or brushing it with oil. 🙂 Good luck!
The pans might be the issue … I have very inexpensive pans and I line them with alum foil. I will put one pan into another to make the bottom thicker. Trying tonight … will let you know. Thanks for your kind response.
Miss Amy, this recipe is so good. Been making it for my boyfriend’s work lunch sandwiches. I’m on the 5th time making it. I’ve learned more about baking from repeating it. I’ve found good success with hand mixing ten minutes and letting the dough be wetter than I think it should be. I’m sure I’ll improve even more thanks to your handy dandy recipe. Thanks so much!
So glad the recipe is working out for you! It’s one of my favorites. 🙂
I have tried many recipes for bread and this was the best! I ended up with 2 beautiful loaves with a soft crust and very tender inside. Thank you so much for sharing!!
I was in a bind with my soup simmering and the fact I had forgotten to pick up a nice loaf from the store. Googled a bit and came across this recipe.! Quick, easy and turned out perfect! Even kneading this loaf was not difficult. Was delicious. A new go to recipe!