Fougasse is a French flatbread from Provence formed and minimize to seem like a leaf or an ear of wheat. Just like the French cousin of Italian focaccia, this “fireside bread” includes a chewy, crusty texture and rustic savory taste. This recipe requires making a preferment a day forward of time (takes lower than 5 minutes!), which is vital for growing taste and construction.
Just like the French cousin of focaccia, fougasse is a country, olive oil–kissed flatbread meant for sharing, tearing, and dipping. Historically formed and slashed to resemble a leaf or stalk of wheat, these signature cuts create further crispy floor space because it bakes.
Whereas we aren’t utilizing the precise technique you’d be taught in a bread class in France, this streamlined model delivers constant, bakery-worthy outcomes in your house kitchen. It’s additionally a beautiful introduction to preferment breads—a powerful house baking challenge that you simply’ll really feel proud to drag from the oven.
Flip in your favourite French café playlist, get out the olive oil, and let’s bake!
What Is Fougasse?
Fougasse is a crusty French flatbread from Provence with a deeply savory taste and fantastically contrasted texture. Consider it as someplace between rustic bread crust and a skinny focaccia. Right here’s what makes it so particular:
- Savory and fragrant: Olive oil richness with notes from herbs like rosemary or thyme.
- Crispy exterior: Because of its skinny shaping and ornamental slashes.
- Chewy inside: Particularly when made with bread flour and a preferment.
- Add-ins are welcome: Fougasse is commonly studded with black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and/or cheese (like Gruyère or Parmesan). However even in its easiest kind—olive oil, salt, and herbs—it’s deeply satisfying.
How We Examined This Recipe
This fougasse went by means of a number of rounds of testing to get the flavour, texture, and construction good.
My staff and I experimented with:
- Completely different yeast quantities
- Heat vs. room-temperature water
- Numerous ratios of bread flour to complete wheat flour
- Baking at each 425°F and 450°F
- Adjusting the olive oil for tenderness & taste
Some variations turned out too dense. One was far too dry and wouldn’t even come collectively. Others had been softer however lacked construction. The ultimate model (beneath) strikes the stability we had been in search of: crisp edges, a chewy inside, and sufficient olive oil to maintain the crumb tender with out dropping that rustic character.
Although lengthy and generally irritating, the testing course of confirmed one thing necessary: small changes in hydration, complete wheat proportion, and yeast make a giant distinction in a hearth-style bread like this.
What most fougasse recipes have in frequent:
- Bread flour (usually with some complete wheat)
- Olive oil
- Ornamental slashes earlier than baking
The place they range:
- Some use a preferment (like a biga or poolish), others don’t. We discovered the flavour improved tremendously with this straightforward step.
- Some depend on stretch-and-folds as a substitute of kneading—that is the tactic we want.
- Some bake on a stone for further crispness. We use a preheated baking sheet, and each work properly.
Elements You Want for Fougasse
- Bread Flour: Whereas you should utilize all-purpose flour on this recipe, I strongly suggest utilizing bread flour. Identical to once we make olive bread, pizza bread, and asiago-crusted skillet bread, bread flour produces a stronger, chewier crumb.
- Complete Wheat Flour: Provides depth and delicate nuttiness for a hearty taste.
- Instantaneous or Lively-Dry Yeast: You need to use both. Take observe that you’ll not use a complete customary packet of yeast.
- Salt: You simply can’t make good bread with out salt—it’s important for taste. Use common desk salt at this time.
- Water: Some yeasted bread recipes, like my delicate dinner rolls, name for heat liquid as a result of it helps the yeast work sooner. On the opposite finish of the spectrum, bread recipes with an extended relaxation time, like this no-knead honey oat bread, name for cool or room-temperature water. The cooler the water, the longer the dough takes to rise and, normally, the higher the bread’s taste. (That is necessary as a result of there are so few components so as to add substantial taste!)
- Olive Oil: Somewhat goes within the dough, and you then’ll want extra for greasing and for brushing earlier than baking. And for dipping!
Plus, an invisible ingredient: time. The preferment, a pair strategic rests, and correct proofing after shaping all work collectively to develop taste.
Overview: How you can Make Fougasse
It could look like an extended course of, however take into account that more often than not is hands-off, whereas the dough rests. You even have flexibility with the timing, so you may work it into your day!
Day 1: Make the preferment.
- Combine collectively the biga/preferment. We’re utilizing the identical preferment as ciabatta bread. Cowl and let sit at room temperature for 12–24 hours. It would about double in measurement and be very bubbly.
That is after 24 hours:
Day 2: Make the bread.
In a big bowl, whisk the flours, yeast, and salt. Add the preferment, water, and olive oil. Stir by hand, or use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, till a shaggy dough types.
Flip onto a flippantly floured floor and knead 3–5 minutes, till clean. The dough needs to be barely sticky however workable.
Place in an oiled bowl, cowl, and let relaxation for 45 minutes. It’s fantastic if it rests just a little longer.
Now we’ll construct just a little further construction with one fast stretch-and-fold.
How you can Stretch & Fold Sticky Dough
After the dough rests for 45 minutes, flippantly grease your fingers or a silicone spatula with a little bit of olive oil. Utilizing your greased hand or spatula, raise up one aspect of the dough and gently stretch it up and pull it towards the other aspect of the bowl, folding it down over the dough. I like to visualise a clock on high of the dough for this. You’ll be folding it on the 12 o’clock mark and pulling it down over the 6 o’clock mark. Then, flip the bowl 90 levels and repeat. Do that till you’ve gone across the bowl as soon as, for a complete of 4 folds:
The stretch-and-fold technique is just like kneading dough however a lot gentler and extra exact; it’s designed to deal with the dough’s stickiness with out overworking it. You’re constructing construction and energy.
A single spherical of stretching and folding is sufficient to strengthen the dough with out overcomplicating the method. Once you’re finished, let the dough relaxation for a minimum of 45 minutes and prepare to form.
How you can Form Fougasse
Press the dough right into a rounded triangle form, about 12 inches lengthy and 6 inches broad on the base. Cowl and relaxation for half-hour to let the gluten chill out.
Utilizing a pointy knife or kitchen shears, minimize one lengthy slash down the middle (depart 1 inch at every finish). Add 3–4 diagonal slashes on both sides. Gently stretch the openings to create 2-inch gaps.
Relaxation one other half-hour whereas the oven preheats to 450°F (232°C). Place a baking stone or an inverted baking sheet within the oven so it preheats as properly.
Brush dough with olive oil, and sprinkle with flaky sea salt and herbs, if desired. We sometimes use chopped contemporary rosemary. Dried Herbes de Provence is scrumptious, too.
Slide the parchment (with the dough) onto the preheated baking sheet. Bake about 20 minutes, till deeply golden and hollow-sounding when tapped. Cool barely, then serve heat!
Fast Lesson: Why Use a Preferment?
Preferment, sponge, biga, poolish, levain… what’s the distinction? All preferments ferment a portion of the flour, water, and yeast forward of time to enhance taste, construction, and shelf life. It’s a small step that makes a giant distinction.
Right here’s a fast breakdown:
- Sponge: A versatile, yeast-based preferment usually made just a few hours (or in a single day) earlier than mixing the ultimate dough.
- Biga (what we use right here): A stiffer sponge (about 50–60% hydration). It creates deeper taste and a stronger, chewier construction. It’s excellent for breads like ciabatta and at this time’s fougasse.
- Poolish: Equal elements flour and water (100% hydration). Thinner and extra batter-like, producing a lighter, extra open crumb.
- Levain (from a sourdough starter): Naturally fermented (from wild yeast), giving sourdough bread its signature tang and chew.
For this fougasse, the biga offers us complexity and construction with out making the method difficult. Somewhat planning forward, and your bread tastes prefer it got here from a bakery!
We haven’t examined this recipe with a sourdough starter, so are uncertain of the outcomes. The hydration proportion of your sourdough starter could also be totally different than the biga, so your outcomes might range. If you happen to’d wish to attempt it, change the biga with 1 cup, or 240g, of sourdough starter. Tell us the way it goes!
Description
This home made fougasse is a country French flatbread with crisp, golden edges and a chewy inside. Made with an easy biga-style preferment for enhanced taste and construction, this hearth-style bread is brushed with olive oil and baked at excessive warmth to create its signature crackly crust. Formed and slashed to resemble a leaf or stalk of wheat, fougasse is as lovely as it’s scrumptious! This extensively examined model makes use of bread flour for chew, a contact of complete wheat flour for depth, and olive oil for tenderness. Serve with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, alongside soup or salad, or as a part of a cheese board.
Biga/Preferment
For the Fougasse
- Day 1: Make the Biga/Preferment: In a medium bowl, whisk collectively the bread flour and yeast. Add the water and blend with a silicone spatula till mixed. Cowl the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let relaxation at room temperature for 8–24 hours.
- Day 2: Make the Dough: In a big bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, whisk collectively the bread flour, complete wheat flour, yeast, and salt. Add the biga, water, and olive oil. Combine till a shaggy dough types. If you happen to don’t have a stand mixer, combine the dough collectively by hand with a silicone spatula.
- If utilizing a stand mixer, knead with the dough hook on medium-low velocity for 3–5 minutes, till the dough is clean and barely cheesy. If mixing by hand, flip the dough out (all of the shaggy bits!) onto a flippantly floured floor and knead for 3–5 minutes, till clean. The dough needs to be sticky however workable. If it’s very sticky, flippantly flour your arms or the dough as wanted. Keep away from including an excessive amount of further flour; the dough ought to stay barely cheesy.
- Drizzle or brush just a little olive oil across the within the blending bowl you had been utilizing. Place the ball of dough within the bowl, turning it to coat all sides of the dough within the oil.
- 1st Dough Relaxation: Cowl tightly and let the dough relaxation for 45 minutes, and as much as 2 hours. (See make-ahead directions if you wish to lengthen this time.)
- Stretch and Fold (1 Spherical): Visualize a clock on high of your dough. You’ll be folding it on the 12 o’clock mark. With an olive oil-greased spatula or flippantly oiled arms, raise up the dough at 12 o’clock and gently stretch it up and pull it towards the other aspect of the bowl (6 o’clock), folding it down over the dough. Flip the bowl 90 levels and repeat. Do that till you’ve gone across the bowl as soon as, for a complete of 4 folds. Flip the dough over so it’s seam aspect down.
- 2nd Dough Relaxation: Cowl tightly and let the dough relaxation for 45 minutes, and as much as 2 hours.
- Form the Dough: Flip the dough out onto a chunk of parchment paper and use your fingers to press it right into a rounded triangle or egg form, (roughly) 12 inches lengthy by 6 inches broad on the base.
- third Dough Relaxation: Cowl flippantly and let relaxation for half-hour, and as much as 2 hours.
- Lower the dough: Utilizing a pointy knife, pizza wheel, or kitchen shears, minimize the dough lengthwise down the middle, stopping about 1 inch from every finish. Then make 3 or 4 diagonal cuts on both sides of the middle minimize. To create a leaf-like look, use your fingers to softly stretch out every minimize till the holes are about 2 inches broad.
- 4th Relaxation: Cowl flippantly and let relaxation for half-hour, and as much as 1 hour. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 450°F (232°C). In case you have a baking stone, preheat it on the middle rack. In any other case, place a big flat baking sheet, or a rimmed baking sheet the other way up, on the middle rack to preheat.
- Brush the fougasse with olive oil, and sprinkle with herbs and/or sea salt, if utilizing. Rigorously slide the fougasse, together with the parchment paper, onto the preheated baking stone or baking sheet.
- Bake the fougasse till golden brown, about 20 minutes. If you happen to give the highest of the bread a faucet, it ought to sound hole. For a extra correct check, the bread is completed when an instant-read thermometer reads the interior temperature as 190–200°F (88–93°C).
- If desired, brush the nice and cozy bread with extra olive oil. Serve heat with dipping oil and balsamic vinegar, alongside soup or salad, or as a part of a cheese board.
- Fougasse is greatest the day it’s baked. Retailer leftovers lined at room temperature for as much as 2 days. If desired, reheat in a 350°F (177°C) oven, uncovered, for five–8 minutes to crisp again up.
Notes
- Make-Forward Directions: There are just a few methods to get forward. First, the biga (step 1) can sit at room temperature for as much as 24 hours earlier than utilizing. Second, after the primary 45-minute dough relaxation in step 5 (earlier than the stretch-and-fold), you may cowl the bowl tightly and refrigerate the dough for as much as 24 hours. When able to proceed, let the dough sit at room temperature for about 30–60 minutes earlier than continuing with the stretch-and-fold and shaping.
- Freezing Directions: One of the best ways to freeze that is to freeze the baked bread. Let it cool fully, then wrap tightly and freeze for as much as 3 months. Thaw at room temperature and refresh in a 350°F (177°C) oven, uncovered, for five–8 minutes to crisp it again up.
- Particular Instruments (affiliate hyperlinks): Kitchen Scale | Glass Mixing Bowls | Stand Mixer | Silicone Spatula | Baking Sheet | Pastry Brush | Instantaneous-Learn Thermometer | Cooling Rack
- Flour: For best possible taste and chewy texture, I strongly suggest utilizing bread flour. You need to use a 1:1 substitution of all-purpose flour in a pinch with no different modifications to the recipe; nonetheless, the dough will not be as sturdy, and will not maintain form as properly.
- Complete Wheat Flour: This small quantity provides depth of taste and delicate nuttiness with out making the bread dense. You’ll be able to change it with extra bread flour if wanted; the feel will probably be barely lighter and fewer hearty. I don’t suggest rising the entire wheat flour past 1/2 cup, as an excessive amount of could make the fougasse dry and dense.
- Yeast: You need to use prompt or active-dry yeast, however I extremely suggest an prompt (aka “speedy rise” or “fast rise”) yeast. If utilizing active-dry yeast, there are not any modifications wanted to the recipe. Reference my Baking with Yeast Information for solutions to frequent yeast FAQs.
- Optionally available Add-Ins: In step 2, whenever you combine the preferment with the dough components, you may add as much as 3/4 cup of chopped olives, sun-dried tomatoes, or shredded cheese. Keep away from including an excessive amount of, which may weigh the bread down and have an effect on shaping. It’s also possible to add 2 teaspoons chopped contemporary herbs, or 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
- Can I Use a Sourdough Starter for This Recipe? To rely solely on a sourdough starter and never yeast, I like to recommend in search of a selected sourdough fougasse recipe. Nonetheless, for those who’d wish to attempt it, change the biga with 1 cup (240g) of sourdough starter. Relying on the hydration proportion of your starter, outcomes might range.
