These Chestnut Fig Sourdough Baguettes are the tastiest mini baguettes for all of your cheesy needs. They’re perfect for a picnic, ideal for a cheese board, and delicious with jam and nut butter.
These baguettes have roasted chestnuts, dried figs, and honey. Enough said. I feel like these are the cutest mini baguettes for the holidays. They’re like made for winter. Um well literally, I made this recipe for winter, so…
Chestnut Fig Sourdough Baguettes: Recipe details
I wrote this recipe for making 4 mini baguettes but you can also make it as 2 medium sized baguettes or 1 long baguette. I love mini things, so four very portable baguettes is appealing to me, but longer baguettes are fun too!
If you’ve never shaped baguettes before, this video is helpful. Just imagine that they are mini. I did include pictures with the recipe to help guide you through the shaping process. Also, this video shows a different method of shaping mini baguettes if you're interested.
I do highly suggest baking these on a hearthstone if you have one, but a sheet pan does work just fine. Also, creating steam in the oven is one of the most important parts of this recipe. It's what helps these baguettes rise in the first few minutes of baking. So don't forget about filling the shallow pan with water during the preheat! And be very careful of the steam when you open the oven to load the baguettes.
Also the dried figs can be replaced with any dried fruit you desire. I do love figs and chestnuts together, though.
And usually I use organic chestnuts that are already roasted and peeled and ready to go. It's amazing that they sell these in packages without any preservatives. These are the chestnuts I use. I've also found these exact boxes at Costco, but not sure if they have them anymore. I love the six pack because chestnuts are super healthy (and tasty!) to snack on as well.
But if you wish to swap out the chestnuts for a nut, you just have to soak the nuts you're planning to use for about an hour before using in the recipe. That will prevent the nuts from soaking up any hydration out of the dough itself.
Chestnut Fig Sourdough Baguettes
Equipment
- Sheet pan or hearthstone
- Shallow pan for the bottom of the oven
Ingredients
for the levain
- 20 g mature sourdough starter
- 50 g water
- 70 g bread flour
for the dough
- 250 g warm water
- 250 g bread flour
- 55 g whole wheat flour
- 75 g all-purpose flour
- 20 g honey
- 6 g salt
to prep the add-ins
- 90 g finely chopped dried figs
- 60 g finely chopped roasted chestnut meat
- 140 g boiling water
Instructions
The night before
- Stir all the levain ingredients with a fork until thoroughly combined. Gently cover and let rise overnight at room temperature (8-12 hours).
The next morning
- If your levain is already peaking, let it hang out in the fridge until the next step. To make the dough, mix the warm water, bread flour, whole wheat flour, and all-purpose flour at medium speed in a stand mixer with a dough hook for 5 minutes or thoroughly combine by hand. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
- Add all of the levain and mix at medium speed for 7 minutes or thoroughly combined by hand.
- Cover and let sit for 30 minutes. In the meantime, put the chopped dried figs and chopped chestnut meat into a small bowl. Add the boiling water and let sit for 2 minutes. Drain the water and let the add-ins wait until the next step.
- Add the add-ins, honey, and salt to the dough. Mix at medium speed until the dough becomes a ball again (you may have to remove it once from the hook after mixing for a few minutes and then mix again) or by hand until fully combined. Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
- Lightly flour a surface and dump the dough onto it. Fold four corners of the dough in until a square is formed, then flip it over and place into a clean container or bowl. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough after 1 hour.
- Repeat twice, an hour between each stretch and fold. Then let the dough bulk rise for 4 hours or until slightly puffy and risen about 1.75x the original size. Cover and place the container in the fridge overnight (12-16 hours).
In the morning
- Remove the dough from the fridge and let rest in its container for an hour at room temperature.
- On a lightly floured surface, shape the dough into a boule and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Cut the dough into four sections.
- Take one portion of the dough and face the point away from you.
- With lightly floured fingertips, press the dough to flatten it slightly.
- Pull the pointed part in towards you to the center of the dough. Press it down with the heel of your hand from right to left.
- Flip the dough around, then pull the wide edge in towards the center of the dough. Press it down with the heel of your hand from right to left.
- Flip the dough around, then pull the last edge of dough up and over, then press it down with the heel of your hand from right to left, closing off the seam. You can use your fingers to seal the seam as well if necessary.
- On a flourless surface, place the mini baguette seam-side down.
- Gently roll the baguette back and forth, lengthening the dough and tapering the ends. Then flour the surface of the shaped baguette.
- Place the mini baguette on the prepared pan. Repeat with the other three sections of dough.
- Lightly cover and proof for 1.5 hours, preheating the oven to 450F in the meantime. The oven should contain a shallow pan of water on the bottom rack, so the oven fills with steam during the preheat. There should be a rack set in the middle as well.
- Score the baguettes diagonally about three times on each one. Bake the baguettes for 22 minutes, reducing the temperature to 400F halfway through. Let cool for two hours to let the crumb set before slicing, or just eat them warm despite the crumb and enjoy!
Notes
If you enjoyed this recipe, check out my Purple Sweet Potato Sourdough recipe!
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