Awesome Baguettes

Day 1: Make dough. Rise until double, punch down, refrigerate covered overnight.
Day 2: Make dough again. Add a piece of the dough from the previous day (allow
it to warm up for an hour at room temp before using). Rise for 30 minutes, punch
down and remove a piece of dough to save for your next batch (this can be kept
in the fridge for use the next day or frozen to keep it longer). Rise remaining
dough until double. Shape into loaves. Cover and refrigerate shaped loaves
overnight. Save out a piece of dough in this way each time you make bread to use
in your next batch.
Day 3: Remove covered loaves from fridge. After 30 minutes, turn on oven to 475
deg F. After another 15 minutes, uncover the loaves. After another 15 minutes,
glaze as desired, score and bake. Incorporate steam into the oven during first 5
minutes of baking, then turn oven down to 450 deg F. Bake another 20 minutes or
so until done.

You don't have to refrigerate the shaped loaves overnight. You can retard them
for a few hours or not at all if you want to bake the loaves after shaping and
rising till almost double. They will be more wonderful if you wait till the next
day though.

Tips: Don't punch the dough down hard after rising. Flatten gently leaving some
air bubbles. If you live in a cold climate use warm water when making your dough
but do not rise in a "warm" place - room temperature away from sources of heat
or drafts is good. When making dough using a pate fermentee (old dough), you can
use less yeast in your recipe. I use about 1/2 - 3/4 tsp per pound of dough. You
can bake the refrigerated loaves either the next morning or the next evening. I
generally use about 1 C old dough for each 3 cups of flour in my bread but you
can use whatever amount you like best. You can use any French Bread recipe you
like, I use a 1/2 and 1/2 combination of bread flour and all purpose flour to
get a soft tacky dough. When refrigerating shaped loaves place them on whatever
you plan to bake them on. I cover the back of a cookie sheet with parchment and
sprinkle with cornmeal and place my loaves on it, then to bake I transfer the
parchment with the loaves on it onto the baking stone. For crisp crust leave the
bread in the oven with the oven turned off for 7 - 10 minutes after the bread is
done baking then transfer to cooling rack. This bread tastes best when
completely cooled but it is hard to wait!

I've been on a quest for the perfect baguette and have been making them every
day for months using different methods - straight dough, poolish, quick sponge,
and pate fermentee. IMO using a pate fermentee along with retarding the dough in
the fridge wins hands down for texture and flavor! The interior is very elastic
and chewy, with a crispy delicious crust.