There really is a difference. And right now we’re loving fougasse. So much that we have entirely rejected the idea of making focaccia.

When I first read about fougasse, I thought it must be virtually the same as focaccia. I dismissed making fougasse because I’d made focaccia. They were the same, after all.... 

Our fougasse craze started after reading about Chad Robertson’s fougasse in “Tartine Bread”. (It’s a GREAT book!!) But because of still being certain – what with my terrific retention skills when reading – that fougasse was simply French focaccia, I used the ingredients for our focaccia recipe along with Robertson’s shaping and baking method to make our first fougasse.

Amazingly, not only is the fougasse quite different from focaccia (even using the same dough), but both of us have decreed that fougasse is superior to focaccia. At least that’s what we think right now.

Because fougasse is baked on a stone instead of on an oiled pan, there are more crispy bits. Not too crispy though… it’s juuuuust right! Of course, it can be cut with a knife but we think that fougasse tastes better torn apart.

After the first couple of times making fougasse, I noticed that in his book, Chad Robertson suggests using baguette dough for making fougasse. ie: no oil in the dough itself.

So we tried that too. And it was good. Really good.

We’re not sure if it was better than fougasse made with focaccia dough. Just different. It’s the shaping, slashing and baking that will produce the characteristic (I think) fougasse texture and flavour.

Yes. We love fougasse so much that we can’t stop making it! I’m thinking that once you start making it, you won’t be able to stop either.

• Fougasse Recipe I followed (this is a link)

I am very pleased to be the host of October 2011's Bread Baking Babes’ task. Here is what I wrote to the BBBabes:

So far I’ve made fougasse using focaccia dough or baguette dough; plain with oil drizzled on before; plain with no oil drizzled on until just after baking; with poppy seeds added to the dough; with black olives; plain drizzled afterwards with oil infused mushrooms.

All were a little different but all were equally delicious. Of course, I’m hoping that you too neeeeeeed to make fougasse and will now bake along with us.

To receive a Baking Buddy Badge to display on your site: bake fougasse in the next couple of weeks and post about it (we love to see how your bread turned out AND hear what you think about it) before the 29 October 2011.

Please read here (this is a link) for details on how to participate.

-Elizabeth

(This is a partial mirror of a post about fougasse on blog from OUR kitchen)

I've been wanting to bake a fougasse for a long time and finally did it.  I was baking Hamelman's olive levain and saw that one suggested shaping was as a fougasse.  I saw that he also had a separate fougasse recipe, but I had already created the levain for the first bread.  As I usually do when baking a recipe for the first time, I read at least 2 or 3 other authors, hope to find a photo of the finished product, and then proceed.  (I guess I'm a careful person in general and pretty frugal as well.)  So I realized, from reading others' fougasse recipes, that I had to add olive oil (mentioned in both Baking with Julia and Nancy Silverton's Breads from La Brea Bakery).  So I added 4 TBSP olive oil and also 1/2 tsp. instant yeast to the final dough.  I also reduced slightly the amount of olives, not very significant, but used 7 oz. instead of the 8 oz. in his recipe.  For shaping, I had seen a color photo in Dorie Greenspan's Baking with Julia and used that as a guide.  I was more than satisfied with the results, which yielded 2 large loaves, each weighing about 1 1/2 lbs.  I brought one to my book club dinner, and people couldn't get enough of it.  There's another in my freezer, soon to join me on a visit to friends in the L.A. area.  

Here's my update of Hamelman's recipe for Olive Levain (pp. 178-9):

OVERALL FORMULA:

Bread flour                   1 lb, 12.8 oz

Whole-wheat flour         3.2 oz

Instant yeast                1/2 tsp

Water                          1 lb, 4.2 oz

Salt                             .5 oz

Olives, pitted                7 oz (I used Trader Joe's large Kalamatas, cut in half and, very important, dried very well.)

Olive oil                       4 TBSP extra-virgin

Rosemary needles, minced, about 2 TBSP

TOTAL YIELD:               3 lb, 11.7 oz plus olive oil

LIQUID LEVAIN BUILD

Bread flour                   5.8 oz (1 3/8 cups)

Water                          7.2 oz (7/8 cup)

Mature culture (liquid)    14.2 oz

FINAL DOUGH

Bread flour                    1 lb, 7 oz (5 1/4 cups)

Whole-wheat flour          3.2 oz (3/4 cup)

Instant yeast                 1/2 tsp

Water                           13 oz (1 5/8 cups)

Salt                              .5 oz (2 1/2 tsp)  

Liquid levain                  13 oz (all less 2 TBSP + 1 tsp)

Olives, pitted                  7 oz (1 1/4 cups, packed) 

Rosemary needles, minced, about 2 TBSP

LIQUID LEVAIN:  Make the final build 12-16 hrs. before the final mix; let stand in a covered container at about 70 deg. F. (mine fermented overnight for about 14 hrs at 60 degrees; it seemed fine).

MIXING:  Add all ingredients to the mixing bowl, except for the olives [and the olive oil--my addition].  In spiral mixer [mine is planetary--K/A Pro 6] mix on first speed for 3 minutes, adjusting hydration as necessary.  Turn the mixer to second speed, drizzling in the olive oil, and mix approximately 3-4 minutes more.  Dough should have moderate gluten development.  Add the olives, distributing them in by hand to keep them from getting smashed and coloring the dough purple (a little bit of purple seems OK).  

BULK FERMENTATION:  2 hours.  (Remember, I have added instant yeast.)

FOLDING:  Fold once after 1 hour or, if the dough seems to need more strength, fold twice at 50-minute intervals.

DIVIDING AND PRESHAPING:  Divide the dough into 1.5-lb. pieces.  Lightly round dough on a floured surface with seams down.  Let dough relax for about 20 minutes.  Shape the dough into an oval shape about 1 1/2-inches thick, using a rolling pin if necessary.

FINAL FERMENTATION:  About 1 1/4 hours at 67 deg. F.  (You should adjust time to your ambient temperature.)

SHAPING AND BAKING:  Preheat oven with stone to 500 deg. F.  Place a pan with about 2 inches of hot water on the rack below the baking rack; it will be steaming by the time you load the dough.  When fougasse has risen, final shaping occurs.  Pick up dough and stretch it gently so it's about half again as long as it was.  Place it on baking sheet without sides or a peel lined with parchment.  Shape it into a long "tombstone" shape, the base about half the length of the height.  Using a pizza wheel or a good-sized paring knife, cut slits as shown in the photo, and cut into the perimeter to suggest a leaf shape, also as below.  Next, widen the slits with your hands, which takes some time, so they won't close up when the loaves go into the oven.  (I have only one oven, so I kept the second loaf, preshaped and covered with a plastic trash bag--puffed up with air inside so it wouldn't stick to the dough--in my garage while the first loaf was being slashed and baked; it was a cool day so the garage was about 55 degrees.)  When done with the cutting, brush top with extra-virgin olive oil and scatter minced rosemary needles or minced herb of choice on top, lightly sticking it on with fingers if necessary.

Steam oven before loading the dough onto the stone and again after it's in the oven (I sprayed with a garden pump sprayer every 2 minutes for the first 10 minutes, covering the window with a towel each time).  After 10 minutes, remove the aluminum pan below the baking rack and turn down the heat to 460 deg. F. (I actually baked with convection setting, which is 435 deg. F.  Either way seems to work fine.)  Check doneness after a total of 35 minutes.  You want a full bake but not overbaking, as the loaf is thin.  Bake for a total of 35-40 minutes, again using your judgment and knowing how your oven bakes.  When done, remove to a cooling rack.  While loaf is still hot, brush again with extra-virgin olive oil.  Enjoy!!

... and we also got a nice mention.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/bs-fo-bread-starter-20100817,0,6594039,full.story

Stan Ginsberg

www.nybakers.com

With a new baking job I've been overwhelmed to the point of hardly having time to enjoy posts on TFL let alone contribute.  But as the 4th has approached I found a day off to recharge my batteries, revisit some breads I love to bake, and try an experiment in dinner rolls involving ciabatta dough.

First, revisiting old friends - in this case Hamelman's mixed starter pain au levain, and, fougasse. 

Over time I've found that the subtle flavors that are imparted by a mixed starter of my everyday levain and rye levain, combined with a small introduction of whole wheat flour to the final dough, make this pain au levain my go-to bread of choice.  There is noticeable sourness in the baked loaf, yet not so overwhelming that it obscures the other flavors imparted by the mixture of grains and starters.

(A little crackly crust for David S here)

.          

Plus, I have to admit, it's just plain fun to be able to use both starters simultaneously in constructing one dough.  Usually I find myself grabbing one or the other starters out of the fridge (now that it's unbearable summer here in D.C.) and staring somewhat ruefully at the one which goes unused.  So Hamelman's mixed starter sourdough not only satisfies my taste buds, but assuages any sense of guilt over favoring one levain over the other.

The fougasse I haven't baked in some time, but I had promised compatriots at my favorite pub that on Saturday I would appear with snacks in hand.  And what better way to share than with a niçoise olive and sea salt fougasse! 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The beautiful leaf shape was shortly admired and much more rapidly dismantled by my fellow pub mates!  I've tried these with a variety of additions - roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and traditional anchovies.  In any incarnation, I find them quickly devoured.  And let's face it, they are a 'fun' bread because of their distinctive shape.

My third bake on Saturday was with a traditional ciabatta dough of 72% hydration.  But instead of creating the usual 1 lb. loaves I decided to cut the dough into 1.5 oz increments and bake dinner rolls with them - ciabattinis as I like to call them. 

The dough makes for a quick and easy dinner roll that can be bagged and frozen once cooled, ready to be pulled out and thawed as needed.  Most of my dinner rolls contain healthy doses of butter, so I find this very simple roll - just flour, water, salt and yeast - to be a nice change and a wonderful sop for any dish that contains oils or juices.

The other eventful recent occurrence was a delightful 2-day workshop at King Arthur Flour in mid-June on wood-fired oven baking, taught by Dan Wing who, with Alan Scott, wrote the 'bible' on wfo's - The Bread Builders.  It was an eye-opener for me in that my conceptions of wfo's as mainly pizza makers were thrown out the window as we not only baked wonderful breads, but cooked equally wonderful meals on them. Those who are interested in reading more about my second 'excellent adventure at KAF' can find my recounting here.

Happy baking and Happy 4th of July to all!

Larry

Davesmall's recent postings of his Fougasses (Fougasse with refrigerated dough ) inspired me to finally make this bread from Provence and the Côte d'Azur. I first had this bread in Lourmarin, in the Vaucluse. My wife and I visited an old high school French teacher of mine. His French wife has a family connection with that village going back generations. We spent a delightful day on a motor tour of the area, including several stops at bakeries, because each had different specialties. We ate the fougasse with a delicious daube de boeuf for lunch that day.

I made these fougasses from the formula in Michel Suas' Advanced Bread and Pastry. it uses a levain but is also spiked with a small amount of instant yeast. Per Suas' formula, I added some rosemary to the dough, fresh from the garden. We dipped it in EVOO with a bit of balsamic vinegar and had it with salmon cakes and a salad of tomatoes, cucumber and radishes with a mustard vinaigrette. A lovely Navarro Pinot Gris was a perfect accompaniment, although a rosé would have been more traditional with this bread.

Fougasses proofing

Proofed, ready to bake (450ºF for 20 minutes with steam)

Fougasses

Fougasse is a crust-lovers' bread. It is very crunchy but with enough tender, highly aerated crumb to absorb dipping oil. I enjoyed dipping it in the salad dressing more than the oil and balsamic. I ate 3/4 of one myself at dinner, demonstrating my customary restraint.

David

I like to keep bread dough in the refrigerator at all times so I can make something on a whim. 'Something' often means a pizza, ciabatta, pita bread, or fougasse. My favorite is a wetter version of the boule dough recipe in the book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a day. My recipe is 2 pounds flour (I use General Mills Harvest King), 28 fluid ounces water, 1.5 tablespoons instant yeast, and 1.5 tablespoons kosher salt. Mix together but don't bother kneading. Let rise two hours. Punch down and refrigerate overnight or for up to two weeks.  I keep it in a plastic shoe box. Once you have this dough you can tear off a piece and make a variety of delicious eats. (note: See my pizza recipe using this same dough http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/18214/really-easy-thin-crust-pizza-my-way).

Today I made a simple Fougasse which is a staple on the French Riviera. 

This is so easy and so delicious. Tear off a 1 to 1.5 pound piece of your refrigerated dough. Stretch and fold four or five times on a well floured surface. The dough will be sticky so use plenty of flour. Form a log about 13 inches long and press down so it is about 3 to 4 inches wide. I form the loaf on a Silpat Silicone non-stick mat on a cookie sheet but parchment paper works just as well. Cut slits with a pastry knife and spead the dough as shown in the photo so the three legs are wide apart and won't stick together when the dough rises. Cover with a clean damp dish towel and let the dough rise for one to two hours.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Brush the dough with water using a pastry brush. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Bake for 20 minutes or so until nicely browned.

Prepare a dip with 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil and one crushed garlic clove. 

Serve hot out of the oven. Tear off a piece and dip in the garlicky olive oil. This is really delicious. The bread has a crispy crust with a chewy center and fairly large holes. The salt and the olive oil make a great marriage.

Fougasse is my favorite easy sourdough: I love the extra crust and the ease of pulling it apart. I made these with my version of Pierre Nury's and Zolablues Light rye: 65% hydration 5% rye, 20% levain (approximate) and 1.8% salt. The levain was kept in the fridge for a couple of days before I made this bread. Overnight retard following minimum stretching/folding. Rolled in poppy seeds and fennel seeds, brushed with olive oil, baked on stone 500/400 degrees F.

In the UK there is a fantastic TV show called "Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets". It's a delightful program presented by the wonderfully enthusiastic Raymond Blanc. His passion with food is thoroughly addictive. In each of the series' eight episodes, Raymond Blanc concentrates on a topic and showcases several related recipes. Some are quite simple, some are exceedingly complex, and Raymond does them with such grace and ease it is a joy to watch. There's a genuine feeling of honesty throughout the series.

Last night's episode was about bread. Raymond began the episode by making a wonderful cream-filled brioche. He placed his ingredients in the mixer, then struggled trying to operate it, realizing that it wasn't plugged in (such is the joy of this show). Once that problem was solved, he mixed the dough, added the butter, and proved the dough. Then, he shaped it by hand to a perfect round, filled with a creme-fraiche custard, and baked this delicacy. The nice thing about this show, that they are not afraid of showing mistakes -- Raymond had shaped the dough too thinly, and there was a little hole in his round, so that some of the filling escaped. He shared the brioche with his two sons. 

Raymond moved on to make a versatile country bread dough, which he made into a plain loaf of bread, a fougasse topped with various tasty things, and beer-topped rolled that looked delicious. Watching Raymond talk about bread with such passion was a joy. 

Raymond then went to visit a miller in search of some flours to make a Gluten-free loaf. They made an attempt with some chestnut flour that wasn't a total success, but was quite tasty, according to them. 

Raymond's final project was an apple croustade, a yeast dough preparation I have never seen before. He made the strangest yeast dough, where the liquid was in the form of beaten egg white mixed with egg yolks, water, and some sugar. The dough is then stretched by two people to a paper-thin layer, not unlike a strudel, and brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with sugar. This is cut into squares, and place in neat little nest-like parcels in small tart tins to dry overnight. Then, Raymond thinly sliced apples, arranged them in a beautiful rosette, and baked them with butter and sugar. The next day, the dough parcels are baked and the caramelized apple rosettes are warmed up. The dessert is plated: place the apple rosettes onto a plate, and top with a dough parcel. Pour some vanilla-pear sauce around this, top with ginger-vanilla ice cream, and finely diced stem ginger. Wow! They finished the program with with Raymond and one of his apprentices sharing one of these. 

I'll probably never make the croustade, but the cream filled brioche is on my "to bake very soon" list. 

I whole-heartedly recommend that you watch this program. If you live in the UK, you can catch the program (and past episodes; I recommend the chocolate episode) on the BBC iPlayer, here. If you live outside the UK, as do I, you should make the effort to get a copy of this episode, because it is well worth watching. 

I am going to be making a fougasse tonight.  I plan on using gorgonzola cheese in my dough.  What spices would compliment the gorgonzola?  I don't want to add too much because I want the gorgonzola flavor to be the key flavor. 

Http://veggieinmilwaukee.wordpress.com

Recently friends asked me to bring an appetizer to their dinner parties. For the first one I prepared Gougères, French cheese puffs, made of a savory pâte à choux, very easy to make but I’ve heard that some people are intimidated by this type of cooked dough.

I used David Lebovitz’ recipe (American pastry chef, living in Paris, with an excellent blog) with the only two changes that I upped the salt a bit and added finely chopped, fresh rosemary to the dough.

The Gougères were gone in no time.

For the other party I made this stuffed Fougasse, a bread I have baked often for get-togethers, and everyone always loves it.

The picture is terrible, I didn't have time anymore to snap a picture at home and at the party there was not enough light.

Dough for one big Fougasse:

350g AP flour
150 ww flour
2 tsp instant yeast
300g milk
45g water
40g olive oil
1 ½ tsp sea salt
Mix and let rise until doubled. The dough needs to be quite moist.

In the meantime, caramelize one big, chopped onion in a little olive oil. Add salt and pepper.
Sauté a small zucchini (or mushrooms, or whatever you fancy) cut into little cubes, add salt, pepper, a variety of herbs.
Chop some baby tomatoes into small cubes, drain the liquid from them. Add salt and pepper.
Chop a few olives.
I basically just put whatever I have around – it always comes out good.

Flour your surface well and roll out the dough into a big rectangle.
Spread about 120g cream cheese (room temperature, you can use full or reduced fat) onto it.
Sprinkle whatever you have prepared as toppings evenly over the cream cheese. You may want to add a few more herbs at this point.
Now fold the dough into thirds, like a letter. Turn the entire rectangle over so that the back is now on top. Take scissors and make slits. Open them a little bit with your fingers. Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Let rest/rise for 20-30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400F and bake for about 25 min. Enjoy!

I got the recipe from this website. It’s in French, but if you want to make this Fougasse, I recommend that you take a look at it, since there are very good pictures explaining the filling and folding process.