Sourdough Baguette

Source:
Chocolate and Zucchini (Food Blog): Sourdough Starter Baguettes

Ingredients:

200g natural starter 600g all-purpose flour

400g water 10g salt

Directions: 

0.	Check that the starter is ripe - it should be doubling in volume between feedings since this recipe doesn't use added yeast. Start the recipe ~3-6 hours after feeding it, depending on how active it is.

1.	Mix all the ingredients except the salt together. Let sit for 20-40 minutes so the water can be absorbed.
2.	Add the salt and knead the dough for a short time. It will be very wet.
3.	Cover and rest for 1 hour.
4.	Fold the dough, scraping the bowl and pulling the sides of the dough across the centre to get oxygen to the yeast.
5.	Cover and rest for 1 hour.

6.	Fold the dough again, cover tightly with a plastic bag and rest for 12-24 hours in the fridge.
7.	Let the dough come back to room temperature, 1 hour.
8.	Preheat the oven to 460 degC with an empty cookie sheet as a baking stone substitute, and a pan full of water to produce steam.

9.	Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto the counter, and divide into pieces of equal size.
10.	Tuck the dough into one side of itself until it is bundled into a small log. Rest for 5-10 minutes.
11.	Roll the logs to stretch into baguettes and arrange on a baking sheet.
12.	Slash and bake the loaves.
13.	Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning halfway through for even baking.

Comments:

I think this could be adapted to do steps 1-5 in a bread machine. The step-by-step pictures on the blog post for this are really useful, it's the reason I picked this recipe to try. I've made it twice now and am very happy! I think it's my new go-to recipe, because the timing is a bit more flexible. It works really well if you start it on a Friday evening or Saturday.

Timing intervals:
[(3-6) hours + 40 min + 1 hour + 1 hour] + [(12-14) hours] + [1 hour + baking.]
The in-between steps up until shaping the bread are pretty quick, generally just 5 min or so for quick mixes or folding.

Also, the bread is actually very flavourful for just being salt, water, and flour. From what I have read, it is the long rise in the fridge that produces extra acids from the starter yeast. Whatever the reason, it's really tasty!