Who makes the best baguettes & croissants in Paris (4th district)?

Legay. An institution in the Marais.
45, rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie 75004 Paris

Martin at 40, rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Île 75004 Paris

95% of the time it is the nearest boulangerie to where you are staying that makes the best baguettes, because you can get home while it is still warm and crispy if you buy it at the right time. That makes a huge difference.

Otherwise, in the ridiculous contest every year of the "best baguette in Paris" (in which only about 10% of the boulangeries participate), the winner is almost always in outer Paris (18th, 19th 20th arrondissements more often than not) because the bakers are immigrants who beat their brains out perfecting their craft and they crave recognition.

And at the other end of the spectrum, you can get excellent baguettes at a fast food chain like Paul which is not even a boulangerie but which sells products from its industrial production center in the suburbs.

Listen to Kerouac , the best baguette is the fresh baguette, still warm on the inside.

and yes I love Paul even though the ruin my BMI at every visit.

I have a question about baguettes..........

The baguettes in France are fabulous, we all agree on that.
Why can’t you get a fabulous baguette in the US?
You would think that someone would have copied the French version by now.
We’ve tried many places that claim to be as good as France but somehow
they always fall short.

Why can’t you get a fabulous baguette in the US?

You're probabaly looking in the wrong places. Following the advice of keroac I have several small, local bakeries in my town that serve up a great baguette, with the right mix of crusty & doughy. The key is get it when it's still warm, not something that's been out of the oven for hours.

Interesting question about why you can't get a good baguette elsewhere. While I have had plenty of good baguettes outside of France (and clearly some bakers in Australia have tinkered well with recipes, particularly Vietnamese bakers, that is a common thing here), but blow me down if I can't make an acceptable pancake in Europe. Meaning I can't, I have often tried, and particularly so in Belgium, I can't seem to make ones that were for for anyone but the family dog. Is it the flour? The milk? Should I thin down the mix with water (and would this interfere)? How many eggs? I tend to make large thin pancakes like the ones in NL, not the fluffy kind that might grace US tables (my husband and I have a pancake culture clash in our house and he thinks he makes default pancakes; well, so do I, and they are nothing like his). Any feedback / experiences with pancake making in Europe? What have I got wrong?

Lavandula

My pancake recipe:

Mix
1 metric cup (250 ml) milk
1 1/2 cups flour
1 egg

and as an optional extra: some melted butter. If it's also not salted butter you can add a pinch of salt. I don't always add butter but it is luxurious. Best to leave the mixture stand for a while, but if you are too hungry, don't worry.

Serve up with lemon and sugar.

Lavandula

Do you use self rising flour? We add a little vegetable oil, tb of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. I put in hot pan with oil and tilt my pan to make them spread out so they have crispy edges and once they start making little bubbles I flip only once.


French ovens have steam. I put a pan of water on bottom rack.

Thanks Macross, no, I use plain flour, my husband's recipe has self-raising flour (the cultural fault-line in our house). Yum, I will try adding in vanilla.

Are you in Europe? What is your recipe? You could try my recipe and tell me where I have gone wrong, or just tell me about your favourite pancake experience in Europe...

and I see I am hijacking the baguettes thread but I think it's related, I think maybe flour plays a part....

Lavandula

your 1 1/2 cup of flour, how much is that in grammes?

I think maybe about 126g...?

Lavandula

One cup is 128 grams. 1½ cups is 192 grams.

Oops, I see what I have done, I think I have 1 1/2 cups of milk and 1 cup of flour, not as I wrote above. Rest assured I don't normally do this, I work a lot by feel and the batter would not be sloppy enough with that bigger amount of flour.

Thanks Kerouac!

Lavandula

Good baguettes here also, the huge Korean "Paris Baguette" chain uses industrial frozen dough baked onsite, which is the key. I think they even won that Frenchie contest one year.

To support local bakers during the COVID there were options to order online and pickup, or go to farmer's markets.

Now those who survived are open for brick and mortar service.

This one in my home town is good!

https://www.instagram.com/gustobread/

On pancakes, if you want to cheat, in Paris, most supermarkets have a perfectly adequate pancake mix. At the very beginning of my life in Paris (25 years ago or so) maple syrup was hard to find but now it's an easy search. And if you're really lazy, Picard sells frozen pancakes ready for a warm up.

You need to start with the right oven as this bread is a basic staple aiming to be as cheap as possible. You need the right, very limited ingredients and you need it fresh (between 30 minutes and 4 hours old). Most baguettes are stale by about 11am because the very limited ingredients list (flour, water, yeast and salt) does not have space for the usual industrial ingredients many countries use as a norm in bread. Hence it is very hard to find a good baguette say in the UK. I know of one source in Skipton.

I don't really like baguettes per se, and think France's bread range is pretty limited and not very good, but if you love them you love them. If you want a good baguette you have to follow kerouac's advice.

Croissants are a different story

We have several bakeries (some run by French natives, some not) that make very good baguettes here in the DC area. While I would much rather be eating a warm one in France, we are not suffering. Can even get a decent kouign amann in these parts - the individual size which I know is not the way the original is made.

Freshly baked baguette , slightly toasted mature Pie D'Angloys (Brie is boring) , bacon and cranberry sauce. Together with a bottle of Saint Emilion,

Actually love fresh baguette with chicken tikka and lettuce.

I agree about local, and I also prefer a baguette "tradition" or "a l'ancienne" to ensure a good hand crafted, on-site baguette. It will cost a little more, and some may not feel they are worth it. I have three boulangeries within two blocks of me -- I (and others in the neighborhood) have a preference for one but none are bad.

Here in NorCal, there are several bakeries (especially SF) now that are beginning to churn out OK baguettes, sometimes owned by french natives but sometimes not. They also produce good viennoiserie. One boulangerie is a pretty large scale commercial baker, Acme, as long as you get a fresh loaf.