Crispy Crust, Soft Inside: Easy Overnight Sourdough Baguettes (With Honey!)

These overnight sourdough baguettes are everything a busy home baker wants: crusty outside, soft and chewy inside, zero fuss. With just one bowl and a little patience, you’ll get bakery-style results using your fridge and a few simple ingredients. The touch of honey softens the sour edge—perfect for picky eaters. Whether you're new to sourdough or just want a guaranteed hit with your family, this recipe makes it easy.

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Recipe

Servings: 4 medium baguettes

Calories per serving: ~989 kcal

Total time: ~18 hours (hands-on: ~15 minutes)

Easy Overnight Sourdough Baguettes with Honey

Ingredients:

• 7 ¾ cups (1000g) bread flour

• 3 cups (700g) lukewarm water

• 1 cup (200g) active sourdough starter (100% hydration)

• 1 tbsp (15g) honey

• 3 ½ tsp (20g) fine sea salt

Instructions:

Evening (Day 1)

1. Mix (8:00 PM): In a large bowl, mix the bread flour, water, active sourdough starter, and honey. Stir until no dry spots remain. Let rest for 1 hour (autolyse).

2. Add salt (9:00 PM): Sprinkle in the salt and work it into the dough using pinching and folding motions.

3. Stretch & fold (9:10 PM and 9:40 PM): Perform two sets of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart. For each set, gently pull one side of the dough up and fold it over itself, turning the bowl as you go.

4. Cold bulk ferment (10:10 PM): Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.

Morning or Afternoon (Day 2)

5. Warm up: Take the dough out of the fridge and let it rest at room temperature for 1–2 hours.

6. Shape: Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Gently shape into baguettes by flattening each piece into a rectangle, folding in thirds like a letter, and rolling tightly.

7. Final proof: Place shaped baguettes on a floured towel or parchment-lined tray. Cover and let rise for 45–90 minutes, or until slightly puffy but not doubled.

8. Preheat & bake: Preheat oven to 475°F (245°C). Use a baking stone or steel if you have one. Score baguettes with a razor blade. Bake for 20–25 minutes with steam during the first 10 minutes (a pan of hot water or a spray bottle works great).

9. Cool: Let cool completely before slicing to finish setting the crumb.

Nutrition per Baguette:

• Calories: 989

• Protein: 28g

• Carbs: 198g

• Fat: 2g

• Fiber: 6g

• Sugar: 3g

• Sodium: 1175mg

Storage Instructions:

Store cooled baguettes in a paper bag or wrapped in a kitchen towel for up to 2 days at room temperature. To keep longer, wrap tightly and freeze for up to 1 month. Reheat in a hot oven for 5–8 minutes to restore crust.

Mix

Mix

Mix

Add salt

Stretch & fold

Stretch & fold

Stretch & fold

Stretch & fold

Stretch & fold

Stretch & fold

Cold bulk ferment

Warm up

Shape

Final proof

Preheat & bake

Cool

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Prompt

Here's how I prompted to create the "Crispy Crust, Soft Inside: Easy Overnight Sourdough Baguettes (With Honey!)" recipe:

It started with me trying to understand if my timeline is realistic:

It's 8 pm. I want to go to bed by 10:30. Can I make sourdough baguette with overnight fermentation?

ChatGPT said yes:

Yes — you can start an overnight sourdough baguette now and still be in bed by 10:30 PM. Here's how:

🔹 Plan: Overnight Cold Bulk Fermentation

Start now at 8 PM, finish prep by 10:30, then cold ferment overnight and shape/bake tomorrow morning or afternoon.

✅ What You’ll Do Tonight (Done by 10:30 PM):

8:00–8:10 PM:

• Mix ingredients

  • 500g bread flour

  • 350g water (70%)

  • 100g active sourdough starter (20%)

  • 10g salt

8:10–9:10 PM:

• Autolyse/rest (cover and wait 1 hour)

9:10 PM:

• Add salt (if not added earlier) + fold it in

• Do 1 set of stretch and fold

• Rest 30 min

9:40 PM:

• Do 2nd stretch and fold

• Rest 30 min

10:10 PM:

• 3rd (optional) stretch and fold

• Cover and place the dough in the fridge overnight (bulk ferment)

Sleep!

✅ What You’ll Do Tomorrow:

• 8 AM–12 PM: Remove from fridge and let it come to room temp (1–2 hrs)

• Shape baguettes

• Final proof 45–90 min

• Score & bake at 475°F (245°C) with steam

Let me know your flour and starter % if you'd like a fully customized schedule with shaping notes and baking steam tips.

Since my last attempt had honey, I asked:

No honey?

ChatGPT said I could add it:

You can add honey — it's optional. In traditional French baguettes, there's no honey, but for sourdough baguettes, a small amount of honey (or sugar) is often used to:

• Enhance browning during baking

• Balance acidity from the sourdough

• Add a touch of depth and sweetness that picky eaters may prefer

🔹 If you want to add honey:

Use 5 to 10g (about 1 to 2 tsp) of honey when you mix the dough.

It will slightly soften the crust and enrich the flavor — especially helpful if your family doesn’t like tangy sourdough.

Let me know your crust/crumb goals or if your starter tends to run acidic, and I can tweak the hydration or fermentation time too.

My picky eaters are a bit sensitive to tang of sourdough. So I asked for honey:

Double the amount and include honey

ChatGPT did that:

Great — here’s your doubled sourdough baguette recipe with honey, perfect for starting now with an overnight cold bulk ferment:

🍞 Overnight Sourdough Baguettes (Makes 4 Medium or 3 Large)

🧂 Ingredients:

• 1000g bread flour

• 700g water (70% hydration)

• 200g active sourdough starter (20%)

• 20g salt

• 15g honey (about 1 tbsp)

⏱ Tonight’s Timeline (Done by 10:30 PM)

8:00 PM – Mix

• In a large bowl, combine:

  • 1000g flour

  • 700g water

  • 200g starter

  • 15g honey

• Mix until shaggy. Let rest.

8:10–9:10 PM – Autolyse

• Cover the dough and let it rest for 1 hour

9:10 PM – Add salt

• Add 20g salt

• Fold it in gently until absorbed

• Do 1 set of stretch and fold (grab dough, pull and fold over itself)

9:40 PM – 2nd stretch & fold

• Cover, rest 30 min

• Do another round of folds

10:10 PM – Final fold (optional but helpful)

• Cover well and place in the fridge overnight for cold bulk fermentation

📅 Tomorrow: Shape & Bake

• 8–11 AM: Remove from fridge, let it sit at room temp ~1–2 hrs

• Shape into 3–4 baguettes, place on floured couche or parchment

• Final proof 45–90 minutes, depending on temp

• Score and bake at 475°F (245°C) for 20–25 minutes

  • Use steam (tray of boiling water or spray oven walls at start)

Let me know if you want the baking instructions customized for a Dutch oven, baguette pan, or stone — or want to tweak hydration for more open crumb.

I had no idea what 20grams of salt are so I asked:

How many tsp salt is 20 gr

ChatGPT answered:

20 grams of salt is approximately 3 ½ teaspoons of fine sea salt.

Here’s a quick guide:

• Fine sea salt: ~5.7g per teaspoon → 20g ≈ 3 ½ tsp

• Kosher salt (Diamond Crystal): ~2.8g per tsp → you'd need ~7 tsp

• Kosher salt (Morton’s): ~4.7g per tsp → ~4¼ tsp

⚠️ If you're not using fine salt, let me know the brand/type — volume can vary a lot.

Lastly I asked for calorie content simply because I am trying to lose some weight:

If I made 4 baguettes how many calories is each?

ChatGPT told me:

Let’s calculate the calories for your 4 sourdough baguettes (with honey) using the doubled recipe:

🔢 Total Ingredient Calories:

Ingredient	Amount	Calories
Bread flour	1000g	3640 kcal (~364 per 100g)
Water	700g	0 kcal
Sourdough starter*	200g	~270 kcal (assuming 50% flour, 50% water)
Honey	15g	45 kcal
Salt	20g	0 kcal

🍞 Per Baguette (4 total):

3955 ÷ 4 = ~989 calories per baguette

Let me know if you're baking 3 baguettes instead, or if your starter has a different hydration — I can recalculate exactly.

Scroll to the top or click the link below for the final tried and tested recipe.

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