I just ordered some of the French Bread flour, and am looking forward to baking baguettes. My nearly-no-knead recipe is slightly different: 360g flour 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt 1 tsp yeast 300 ml (10 oz) water I have found that I get better crust if I spray the loaves about 1 hour before the end of the formed rise, and again 30 minutes before the end. The outer layer of dough absorbs the water. Then I can brush the loaves with flour before slashing them, which gives them a nicer look and makes slashing easier. I do not try to create steam in the (convection) oven itself, and have great results. I preheat my oven to 500, then drop it to 450 when I slide the baguettes with the parchment onto the stones. I rotate the loaves every six minutes (for 24 minutes total), removing them from the parchment at the second rotation.

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