I’ve Baked 100+ Baguettes Lately… Here’s Why 🥖
Lately, I’ve been deep in baguette land — baking hundreds (yes, literally hundreds) of loaves over the past few weeks while I start pulling together a brand new baguette resource coming later this summer.
This is going to be a full-on Baguette Deep Dive — mixing techniques, fermentation tips and more. Whether you're new to baguettes or looking to refine your skills, this guide is designed to help you nail consistent, beautiful loaves at home or in a professional setting.
In the meantime, here are a few quick tips to up your baguette game:
- Fermentation is everything. A good baguette starts with a good schedule. One of my favourites? Baguette de Tradition: mix the dough, 30–40 minutes bulk, pop it in the fridge overnight, then shape, rest, and bake the next day. Super doable — and so worth it.
- Want better crust colour but short on time? A small percentage of diastatic malt (0.2–0.5%) can boost enzymatic activity and give you more colour, even on shorter ferments.
- Mixing matters. Getting the right gluten development early on is key for structure and scoring — and I’ll be breaking that all down in the video series.
No promises yet, but I’ve also been chatting with an MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France) — a prestigious title awarded to the top craftspeople in France — about a potential interview to share expert baguette insights. 🤞
Here’s a sneak peek at what I’m baking for the course:
🥖 Straight Dough Baguettes (classic & clean)
🥖 Levain Baguettes (natural sourdough)
🥖 Poolish Baguettes (a yeasted preferment)
🥖 Baguette de Tradition (T65-style flour + French vibes)
🥖 Whole Wheat, Rye Levain & Multigrain
🥖 Decorative scoring tips
🗓️ I'm aiming to launch this around Canada Day weekend — and if you want to be the first to know (and get the best offer on launch day), make sure to hop on the early access list below.
Let’s make some seriously great baguettes together. 💪
A Full Circle Moment: Daniel Boulud + My Book, Bread Etc. 📖
Last night, I had one of the most surreal moments of my career.
I was at the Four Seasons in Toronto with my family — back at Café Boulud, a restaurant I helped open years ago. My friend and mentor, Chef Daniel Boulud, was in town, and I brought him an advance copy of Bread Etc.
Not only did he take the time to flip through it right there (despite a full dining room of people wanting his attention), he chatted with my kids about their favourite recipes, talked with my wife, and then — to top it off — covered our dinner. 🙃 (Bonus: Juniper ordered lobster, oysters, and a small touch of caviar… Frankie had a baguette dipped in ketchup. Balance.)
Then he turned to me and asked, “Will you sign it for me?”
And just like that, it became the very first copy of Bread Etc. I’ve ever signed. Talk about full circle.
He also shared this incredible blurb:
“Chef Matt has taken bread-making to an art form through his passion for baking, his respect for tradition, and his talent in creating approachable and easy recipes that will turn any novice into a master. His knowledge and precise techniques make this book a must-read for baking at home, or anywhere.”
— CHEF DANIEL BOULUD
If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy yet — now’s the time. Preorders make a huge difference and help give this book the momentum it deserves.
👉 Grab your copy of Bread Etc. here
Thanks so much for being part of this — I truly can’t wait to get this book into your hands.
My Favourite New Kitchen Tool — And It Solves a Big Baker Problem 🧽
Do you know that feeling when you scrape sticky dough off your hands, bowls, mixer paddles — and it just won’t quit? Yeah… same. And worse, it usually ends up clogging your drains or wrecking your dish sponge. 😅
Well, I’m super excited to share a solution I actually use every day in my kitchen — and it just launched: Keeki Cloth.
This product was created by Nancy, who was actually one of my very first in-person sourdough workshop students years ago. We bonded over better ways to store sourdough (she created the original Keeki Bag), and now we’re tackling another kitchen pain point — cleaning up dough without making a giant mess or calling a plumber.
We tested a bunch of materials and landed on one that’s reusable, dishwasher-safe, and seriously effective. It’s an update on a tool I’ve quietly been using for years, and now it’s even better.
👉 Grab yours here — trust me, it’s going to change the way you clean up after baking.
Let me know how you end up using it — mine lives on the drying rack and gets used constantly. And bonus: no more tossing out sticky sponges after one use!
Q&A: Inclusions & Total Dough Weight 🧄
If I’m aiming for a 1800g dough, do I adjust the flour and water to compensate for inclusions?
— Nicholas M.
Great question — and one I get a lot.
When you’re working with inclusions (roasted garlic, rosemary, olives, cheese, etc.), you want to include their weight as part of the total dough. So yes — if you're aiming for 1800g, that includes your add-ins. You’ll scale back the base dough (flour/water/salt/etc.) slightly to account for it.
If you’re not totally familiar with baker’s percentages, this article is a must-read:
👉 Understanding Baker’s Percentages
For your rosemary and roasted garlic loaf, a good place to start would be:
- 🌿 Fresh herbs: 3–4% of total flour weight
- 🧄 Roasted garlic: up to 15–20% depending on texture/moisture
And for something like a jalapeño cheddar loaf, I often go 17% + 17% — which brings total inclusions to around 34%, my general upper limit for balance and structure.
Need inspo? These two formulas break it all down:
👉 Potato Sourdough with Leeks
👉 Turmeric Sourdough with Seeds & Onion
And if you want to really level up your inclusion game, grab my Excel Recipe Database. It lets you:
- Build and scale custom formulas
- Instantly see how inclusions affect total dough weight
- Create wild new combos — like jalapeño + cheddar, or green olive + smoked gouda 🍞🧀
It’s the single most-used tool in my baking workflow — and it pays off in every bake.
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My 30 Best Recipes Workbook
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Micro Bakery Favourite of the Week 🥖
Caramelized Honey, Brown Butter & Oat Porridge Sourdough
This one’s been in our lineup forever — a true micro bakery classic that we’ve baked thousands of times. It’s the kind of loaf that regulars come back for, and honestly? I still get excited every time I see it on the rack.
It’s not overly sweet, despite the name. The honey is subtle — just enough to bring a warm, mellow depth. The brown butter adds a nutty richness, and the oat porridge keeps the crumb incredibly moist and tender.
👨👩👧👧 Family-Approved
My kids love this one — and that’s saying something since they’re tough critics when it comes to bread. My wife always mentions how long it keeps. It stays soft for days, making it perfect for toast, sandwiches, or just tearing off a piece and snacking.
🔍 A Few Key Tips:
- Cook the porridge down dry. Quick oats finish fast, but regular oats need 15–20 minutes. You want it very thick, almost paste-like — if it's runny, it’ll weaken your dough.
- Weigh the porridge before adding it to your final dough — the water loss during cooking varies each time.
- Spread it on a sheet pan lined with a Silpat to cool it fast and evenly.
Spain, Jamón & the Best Pizza I’ve Ever Made 🇪🇸
Back in 2010, I was lucky enough to be part of a life-changing program called ICEX – Young Professionals in Spanish Gastronomy, organized by the Trade Commission of Spain. They brought a small group of us to Spain for a full year to tour the country, immerse ourselves in the food culture, and train in Michelin-starred kitchens in Madrid and Barcelona.
On that tour, we visited Joselito, one of Spain’s most legendary jamón producers — and it genuinely changed my life. Their jamón and cured meats became one of my all-time favourite foods.
Fast-forward to now, and I recently found out that Little Barcelona is the official Canadian importer for Joselito. They’re a licensed restaurant too (a bit of a trek for me), but they have an online shop… so I ordered a bunch of goodies, and they sent me a very generous box.
I wasn’t paid to say any of this — I just truly love the product, and the connection to my past made it extra special.
🍕 Here’s What We Made:
Pizza 1: Mushroom, Green Garlic & Joselito Pancetta
- Stretched sourdough pizza dough
- Drizzle of olive oil + grated garlic
- Mushrooms + green garlic
- Salt, pepper, and another drizzle of oil
- Baked, then finished with sliced Joselito pancetta and a bit of parm
- 🔥 Honestly? One of the best I’ve made.
Pizza 2: Mushroom, Garlic, 60-Month Jamón
- Same base: dough, garlic, mushrooms
- After baking: a few fresh chives, chive flowers, and 60-month aged jamón
- Salty, floral, umami-packed — luxury pizza night done right
You can find the dough recipe here if you want to give it a shot:
📽️ Watch the Pizza Dough Video
These products are definitely a treat-yourself splurge, but worth every bite. If you’ve never had aged jamón this good, I highly recommend it at least once.
HOLY BUTTER 🧈
Just got my hands on 25kg of butter — and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy.
Here in Ontario, there’s a dairy quota that limits how much imported butter we can use… but wait — why use imported butter at all?
Well, here’s the thing:
Most cows here are fed palm supplements, which makes the butter super hard when cold. Like, crack-your-lamination-dreams hard. 🧊
Can you still laminate with it? Sure. But it’s not the same.
Right now, I’m working on improving my lamination game — so scoring this butter was a big win. I tested it on puff pastry and hand-laminated croissants. First batch? Incredible (but a touch over proofed). My kids crushed them before I could even get a photo. I’ll share a formula soon.
What did I do with all that butter?
Broke it down, vacuum-sealed it, and popped it in the freezer. Now I can chip away at it over time as I keep practicing.
Next upgrade: a small sheeter to make the whole process even smoother. 🥐
Happy Baking,
MJD
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P.S. Want to learn more from me? Check out my online video resources 👇
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