The Baguette Staircase — Three Paths, One Shape (And Why We're Climbing It This Week)

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I just dropped a new video walking through the three baguette paths. Yeasted. Poolish. Sourdough. Same shape. Three completely different stories.

If you've been wondering which one to bake this weekend, watch this first. It'll save you from picking wrong.

Here's the short version of what's in it.

The baguette isn't really one bread. It's three breads sharing a shape. And the skills stack on top of each other. Yeasted teaches you the shape and the score. Poolish teaches you what time and pre-fermentation do to dough. Sourdough teaches you to read the wild yeast.

You don't have to walk it in that order. But the climb's a whole lot easier when you take it one step at a time.

Three things stay the same no matter which one you pick:

The shape. A 14 to 16-inch roll, tapered at the ends.
The score. Three or four overlapping cuts at a 30 to 45-degree angle.
The steam. The crust sets in the first 10 minutes. Without steam, your loaf can't expand.

What changes is your relationship with time. That's really the choice you're making when you pick a recipe. Not a different bread. A different level of time and dough management.

Pick yours for this weekend's bake-along:

🥖 No starter? Start here. https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/french-bread-baguette?utm_source=skool&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=recipe-share

🥖 Want bakery-level flavor without managing a starter? https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/classic-poolish-baguette?utm_source=skool&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=recipe-share

🥖 Active starter ready to go? https://pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/sourdough-baguettes?utm_source=skool&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=recipe-share

Read your recipe tonight. Drop your questions before you bake. Easier to fix dough than crust.

We've been climbing this staircase for three weeks. Couche on the ciabatta. Poolish on the ciabatta. Now scoring and the roll-out shape on the baguettes. Nothing wasted.

Watch the video. Pick your path. Let's get to work this weekend.

Perfection is not required. Progress is.

— Henry ⭐🔥

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