Small Batch Mini Baguette Bread (2024)

Learn how to make a mini baguette at home with this beginner friendly small batch recipe. This mini baguette recipe uses four simple ingredients —flour, water, salt, and yeast —and can be made in just a few hours.

This mini baguette bread has a thick, crunchy crust with minimal flour dusting, an airy yet soft interior, and that iconic long, tapered shape. It's everything you love about a full size baguette, it's just a whole lot shorter!

Just like my popularmini focaccia and mini ciabatta recipes, this small batch baguette recipe uses just 120 grams (1 cup) of flour. It's a great personal sized loaf if you want a baguette big enough for a couple sandwiches or for snacking!

This baguette's small size is ideal for one or two people to share, great if you live alone and are baking only for yourself, or for you and just one other person. It's also great if you just don't want to use up all your baking ingredients.

It works best baked in a large oval Dutch oven, but I've included other baking options— including for baking in a toaster oven — if you don't have one.

One mini baguette bakes up about 10 to 12 inches long and is perfect for slathering with homemade butter, dipping in my best 5-minute olive oil bread dip, topping with deli-style chicken salad or deli-style tuna salad, or dunking in your favorite soups.

📋 About This Recipe

This mini baguette recipe uses a dough very similar to my small batch crusty bread recipe with a few key differences. It's got a slightly lower hydration (80% rather than 83%) and uses slightly more yeast to speed up the process.

To provide the structure needed for the mini baguette to hold its shape, I incorporated two sets of folds during the first hour of the dough's rise time (similar to my mini ciabatta recipe). This also helps speed up the recipe.

No overnight rise needed, this small batch baguette recipe clocks in at just about 3 hours total, with plenty of hands off resting time between steps.

Initially I planned to develop a full size baguette recipe that would make 3 full size baguettes and then make a scaled down version of it. But I quickly realized that the average home kitchen and oven really aren't built to make full sized baguettes.

"...baguettes are also one of thehardestbreads for the home baker to learn to make, mostly thanks to the many complicated shaping steps involved. Practice makes perfect in all things, especially when it comes to baguettes, and it's hard for a home baker to notch enough of them for the skill to become second nature. My best advice to anyone wanting to nail the baguette? Land a job at a bakery and make several hundred of them a week for a few years. Barring that, find a good recipe and justpractice, practice, practice."

Andrew Janjigian, SeriousEats.com

Quite frankly, I've found that a full size baguette recipe just isn't that practical (rarely do I need multiple baguettes) for the time and effort required to get them right. If it's full size baguettes I'm looking for, I'd honestly rather just buy them at the store.

But a mini baguette? A mini baguette you can definitely make at home. It's a fun little baking project and the smaller size makes the shaping easier and gives you more control over the baking environment.

I developed this mini baguette recipe to be fairly simple and accessible for the beginner to intermediate home baker. It works best when baked in an oval Dutch oven, but I've included plenty of other baking options (including a toaster oven option!) if you don't have a Dutch oven that's the right size.

Don't sweat it if it takes you a few tries to get the hang of baguette shaping; even I don't get it just right every time. Every baguette comes out a little bit different. But the baguettes that come out imperfectly are still delicious! And that's what matters.

📖 Ingredient Notes

You only need four ingredients to make this mini baguette recipe! See recipe card (at the end of the post) for quantities.

• All-Purpose Flour - I use King Arthur Baking Company's all purpose flour which has a higher protein content (closer to bread flour) than other brands of flour. If you're using a grocery store brand of flour, you may get better results using their bread flour.
• Salt - Salt doesn't just add flavor to your dough, it helps control the yeast activity. I usethe chef-standard Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt which has larger, irregular crystals that dissolve quickly compared to other brands and styles of salt. Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt is is also half as salty as other brands of salt by volume, so make sure you're measuring salt by weight! If you're using a different type or brand of salt and measuring by volume, cut the amount of salt in half.
• Instant Yeast - Sometimes called "rapid rise" or "bread machine" yeast. Active dry yeast will also work, but you'll want to mix it with the water and let it sit for a minute instead of adding it to the dry ingredients. Store your yeast in the fridge or freezer to be sure it stays good! If you're not sure your yeast is good, add a pinch to a tablespoon of warm water. If it bubbles or foams after a few minutes, it's good!
• Water - Lukewarm to slightly warm water — not hot water. Hot water will kill the yeast. You're aiming for a water temperature around 90°F.

🥖 How to Make a Small Batch Baguette

We're following the standard dough mixing process here. Mix your dry ingredients together first: Flour, salt, and yeast. This disperses the yeast and salt throughout the flour for more even mixing.

Then, add the water. Mix everything together until you have a sticky, messy, lumpy dough.

You're just looking for all the flour to be hydrated and all the water to be incorporated. It's supposed to be a messy looking dough at this stage. It will be sticky to the touch and impossible to knead, that's okay! We're not going to knead it anyway.

Tovolo 12" Stainless Steel Dough Whisk

The stiff coil of dough whisk is ideal for efficiently mixing sticky, wet doughs to break up any sneaky lumps of flour hiding inside.

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This small batch baguette dough has an initial rise of two hours after mixing. It needs just a bit of attention during the first hour, but during the second hour it'll rise on its own.

During the first hour, you're going to do two sets of folds. This process builds some strength into the dough that will allow us to shape it into a baguette later.

One fold involves stretching the dough out and then folding it over itself. You'll repeat this all the way around the bowl to do a "set" of folds. Use damp hands to prevent the dough from sticking to you.

Grab the top edge of dough with a damp hand and stretch it away from you.

Then, fold the dough down over the center and press to secure it in place.

Rotate the bowl 90° (a quarter turn) and repeat until you've gone all the way around the bowl to finish the set of folds.

I like to flip the dough over so the seam side is facing down while the dough rests after I finish each set, but you don't have to do this.

After the second set of folds, let the dough rise at room temperature for 1 hour. It will double in size and become very airy. Cover the mouth of the bowl while the dough rests so that it doesn't dry out.

To recap: Do a set of folds every 30 minutes during the first hour of rising (2 sets of folds total). Do nothing during the second hour of rising.

🥖 Baguette Shaping

If you're not used to working with sticky doughs, this baguette dough may be a bit of a challenge the first time you try it, especially if you're new to bread making.

There's a sort of magic to the way baguette shaping works — rather than rolling the dough like a log of clay, it's a series of folds that gradually elongate the dough into a tube. Then all you have to do is taper the ends.

Don't beat yourself up if handling the dough doesn't come naturally to you — it will become easier with practice. I've got step-by-step photos to walk you through it and you can also check out the video at the end of this post if you want more visual guidance!

This mini baguette dough is fairly wet and sticky. So you'll want to dust the top of the dough in the bowl with flour before you turn it out onto a lightly floured countertop. Dusting the top of the dough in the bowl prevents it from sticking to the sides of the bowl as you turn it out onto the counter.

Once you've got the dough on the counter, lightly dust the top of the dough with flour too. Just enough to help keep your hands from sticking.

Fun fact: Baguettes are actually not always shaped on a floured surface. Some bakers even prefer shaping them on a damp or oiled surface! I tried both those methods and it was a mess both times, so I'm sticking with the flour method here.

Loosely stretch the dough out into a rectangle. Dust any excess flour off the top of the dough so that it can stick to itself as you shape it.

Fold the top third of the dough down and use the heel of your hand or your fingertips to press down just at the edge of the dough to seal it.

The dough may stick to your hands slightly, but that's okay. The goal is to seal the folded flap shut without pressing all the air bubbles out of the dough.

Dust the surface of the dough or your hands lightly with flour again if needed to prevent sticking and use a firm but light touch as you do the shaping.

Lift and rotate the dough (a bench scraper can help you lift it) so the folded up flap is now at the bottom. You are not flipping the dough over, the seam should still be on top. You're just rotating the dough so the folded edge is now on the side closer to your body.

Once again, fold the top third of the dough down and again press along the edge of the seam using your fingertips or the heel of your hand to seal it shut.

Finally, fold the top edge of dough down, folding the dough in half, and seal the two edges together, pressing firmly against the counter.

Roll the dough toward you so that the pinched together seam is underneath. Then roll it gently once from the center out to help even out the log of dough.

Taper the ends by tilting your hands so your pinkies are against the counter and your thumbs are angled up as you roll the rope.

Rolling the baguette dough here isn't so much about elongating the dough as it is about tucking that seam underneath, evening out the thickness, and tapering the ends.

Watch the length! It's very easy to accidentally make your mini baguette too long. Remember, it has to fit in your Dutch oven or in some other sort of covered baking dish — make sure it can still fit!

Now that the baguette is shaped, it's time for the final 30 minute rise while the oven preheats.

During the shaping process, we knock quite a bit of air out of the baguette dough. This final rise gives it a chance to relax, expand, and develop some new air bubbles.

To support the baguette's shape as it rises, dust a clean dish towel with flour and place the baguette on it.

Pinch to fold the towel up on either side of the baguette. I use binder clips at either end to hold it in place, but this is optional.

Cover the baguette with plastic wrap or place it in a large plastic bag as it rises so it doesn't dry out.

The delicate tapered ends are particularly at risk of drying so a plastic cover that can be relatively airtight really works best here.

If your kitchen is particularly warm (75°F+), you may want to let the baguette do this final rise in the fridge so it doesn't overproof.

While the baguette does this final rise, place a covered Dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 450°F for at least 30 minutes.

🔪 Scoring and Baking Baguette

Scoring isn't just decorative; it creates a vent in the top of the baguette through which steam can escape. Without scoring, your baguette will crack and tear open in the oven unpredictably and might even blow out at the bottom.

You can score your baguette with one long slash down the center or three vertical lines slightly offset from one another down the length.

Before you score your baguette, fill a small misting spray bottle with water and have it ready to go. Once the baguette is scored, you'll spray it with water and want to get it in the Dutch oven as quickly as possible.

Lift one edge of the towel to gently roll the baguette onto a half sheet of parchment paper so that it's arranged in a diagonal line corner-to-corner.

Score the baguette quickly with cuts that are at least half an inch deep.

Spray the baguette all over with the spray bottle of water. Make sure you get the sides too, not just the top.

The water will turn to steam in the Dutch oven and help the baguette develop a crisp, crunchy crust.

The confined space of a pre-heated Dutch oven traps the steam released by the dough as it bakes, creating a nice moist environment which results in a super crunchy crust. It's the best option for baking this small batch baguette (I have other options listed below if you keep scrolling).

Use the two corners of the parchment paper that the baguette ends aren't pointing to to carefully lift the baguette into the preheated oval Dutch oven. Bake it covered for 10 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes.

The final 10 minute uncovered bake time is when the baguette will start to darken and turn golden brown.

After the first 10 minutes, the baguette will look quite pale. That's normal.

The final 10 minute uncovered bake time is when the crust will brown.

You're looking for an internal temperature of at least 200°F for doneness.

BONUS: If the baguette isn't quite as brown as you'd like after 20 minutes, remove it from the Dutch oven and place it directly on the baking rack for an additional 3 minutes.

Remove the mini baguette to a cooling rack. Let it cool completely before slicing it. If you slice it before it has cooled, the steam still trapped in the bread will turn the starches to mush. Luckily it's a small bread, it cools pretty fast!

♨️ Baking Without a Dutch Oven

While a large oval Dutch oven is the best option for baking your mini baguette bread, it's not the only option available to you.

If you don't have an oval Dutch oven that can handle the length of a mini baguette, have no fear. There are other options. Just know you may not get quite the same thick crusty crust or rise on your baguette. It will still taste good through and that's what matters.

🌡️ A Note on Temperature and Dough Rising

Temperature is one of the main factors in determining how quickly or slowly your dough rises (proofs). This includes the temperature of ingredients in your dough, as well as the ambient temperature of the room where you are leaving your dough to rise.

Depending on how cool or warm your water was, and how cool or warm your kitchen is, your dough may rise faster or slower.

• Warmer temperatures increase yeast activity. (But temperatures over 110°F can kill it!)
• Cooler temperatures slow yeast activity. For a long, slow rise, use just 1 gram yeast and cool water and place the dough in the fridge for 8-10 hours after completing the second set of folds.

In baking, "room temperature" is generally somewhere around 70-75°F.

Just because the dough is ready sooner or later than the times given in the recipe doesn't mean it's not working — there might be other temperature factors affecting how quickly or slowly it gets there!

🥣 Equipment Notes

You don't need to use all of the same equipment I use to make this baguette bread, but here are the tools I used and recommend:

• Kitchen Scale - You'll need a kitchen scale to measure the ingredients for this bread recipe. The ingredient quantities are so small that if you're off by a little bit it can make a big difference in how your bread turns out. You'll get the best results from pretty much any baking recipe if you measure ingredients by weight.
• Cast Iron Dutch Oven - A 7 or 9 quart oval shaped Dutch oven will give you the best results for this small batch baguette. I use this 7 quart Tramontina Dutch oven.
• Small Misting Spray Bottle - Spritzing the baguette with water before baking gives it a nice crunchy crust. Make sure you're using a spray bottle that has only been used for edible things, you definitely don't want to be spraying your baguette with bug spray residue or anything!
• Parchment Paper - I've been using these pre-cut quarter pan parchment sheets lately and can usually get 2-3 uses out of them!
• Dough Whisk - The sturdy wire coil of a dough whisk is designed for mixing wet and sticky doughs —the wire cuts through any sneaky clumps of flour easily! There's a reason a dough whisk is one of my favorite whisks.
• Lame - A lame (prounounced "lahm") is a sharp razor blade with a handle used for scoring bread dough. Use the corner of the blade at an angle for slashing. A sharp knife will also work.
• Bowl Scraper - A plastic bowl scraper makes removing the dough from your mixing bowl easy.
• Flour Duster - I always keep flour in a flour duster handy so I can easily dust my counter and bread with flour without it being clumpy or uneven.

👩🏻‍🍳 Practical Tips and Recipe Notes

• If you're struggling with the dough in the shaping stages, try using a metal bench scraper! Sliding it under the dough to help stretch the rectangle shape or lift the baguette between folds makes things a bit easier and less sticky.
• Some people find that working on a damp or lightly oiled surface is easier when shaping baguettes. I work on a wood surface which is porous so I've found that the floured surface works best. If you have a quartz, granite, stone, or metal counter, you may find that a lightly oiled or damp surface works better for you.
• A rookie mistake people make when attempting to score the three slashes on top of the baguette is to cut them at a slight angle because they appear as a diagonal on the baked baguette. But they're not actually cut on a diagonal. To get them to open properly, you need to cut the lines vertically down the length of the baguette. They should be slightly offset from each other.
• Once the baguette is shaped, resist lifting it as much as possible. If you pick it up from both ends, it will sag in the middle and stretch out. If you pick it up from the middle, the two ends will sag and stretch down. Lift it once to get it onto the floured towel. After that you'll roll it off the towel and onto the parchment paper so that it does't stretch out, and then lift it using the parchment paper sling which supports the full length of the baguette as you transfer it into the Dutch oven or onto a sheet pan for baking.

⏲️ Storage Notes

This homemade baguette is best eaten with in the first 2 days after baking. You can store it at room temperature for 4-6 days. Storing it in an airtight container like a large resealable bag works well, though the crust will soften due to trapped moisture.

A cloth bag, brown paper bag, or a bread box with a controlled air vent will help the bread retain moisture while preserving the crunchy crust.

Do not refrigerate bread; the fridge temperature will make it go stale even faster.

This baguette freezes beautifully. Store it in an airtight plastic bag in the freezer with as much air pressed out of the bag as possible. Reheat from frozen at 350°F for about 10-15 minutes in an oven or toaster oven.

🥄 BONUS: Weight to Volume (Cups) Conversion + Instructions

I tested and developed this recipe using weight measurements for accuracy. I can't promise how it will turn out if you measure with volume measurements (cups, teaspoons) because not all measuring cups are the same!

There is no set standard for what "1 cup" of flour weighs —I use 120 grams, but other people (and online conversion calculators) use 130 grams, or even as much as 150 grams which can make a big difference in how a recipe turns out!

Troubleshooting: If the dough seems overly dry, mix in additional water ½ teaspoon at a time and use wet (instead of damp) hands to do the folds. If the dough seems overly wet when you mix it, mix in an additional 1 teaspoon flour at a time until it looks right. If needed, you can also very lightly dust in more flour as you do the folds.

If you use these measurements and the recipe did not turn out right, it's because it is very hard to measure accurately with volume measurements. This is why the recipe did not turn out right. Try again!

💭Recipe FAQ - Flour types, gluten free, etc.

📖 Recipe