Tuesday With Dorie - Kinda

Olive and Sun-dried Tomato Fougasse

Weekly baking with my Tuesday with Dorie group hasn't been on the agenda since early summer. I love the group and grew tremendously in my cooking knowledge. I miss it, and have plans to get back into it, but I just haven't made it work for me lately - for various reasons.

Anyway, I still love Dorie Greenspan and welcome her articles in my monthly Bon Appetit  magazine.

This month featured a recipe with an unusual name, and unusual results. It promised to take bread "Beyond the Baguette" by delivering a "chewy, olive-oil-based bread from Provence" called fougasse.

What?!

Foe-gas? Faux-ghas? Foh-gas-ey?

Help me readers!

I have no idea how to pronounce this bread, but I'm quite certain it's a word only a native French-person can get away with saying without causing gas, I mean giggles. I just visualize airy, under-the-breath words barely escaping a pinched mouth.

Back to the dough. I guess it's a traditional bread that is often included in the 13 desserts of a Provencal Christmas Eve, one for each of the 12 apostles and Christ Himself. I didn't know this when I baked it. Man Google is awesome!

The dough came together just fine though a bit sticky just as Dorie warned. She is always good at giving you details of the process at points when you might otherwise doubt yourself. Following directions, I let it rise a few hours, flipped it a few times, and then sent it off to a cold rise overnight. My daughter "Peanut" - home because it was a teacher-work day- helped the process and enjoyed every bit.

   

The dough is heavily studded with black olives, juicy olive-packed sun-dried tomatoes, and lemon zest. Honestly, it is a pretty straight-forward bread recipe, if you've baked pane before. And the results were pretty much as pictured. Part of the appeal of this recipe was definitely the leaf design, and of course, olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Oh, and that funny name.

I am still baffled by the results though. Dense, crusty on the bottom and crispy in thinner areas, the bread is like a cross between focaccia and a thin, toasted bagel. Chewy and bursting with the flavors you'd expect. Butter was good melted on top.

However, I just didn't care for it!

Good bread usually doesn't last very long in our house. This did. Grew stale, hard and un-eaten. I wouldn't say it warranted that kind of neglect, but in a house that is trying to be careful of every calorie right now (both of us) it didn't tip the scales in favor of splurging.

What I really want now is to taste the real thing, baked by French hands. We have a planned trip to Paris during the Christmas season, and I hope that the urban bakeries showcase breads from the country-side and I might luck-into a taste of the real thing.

----

Recipe below or here.

makes 2 breads/12 servings

Recipe by Dorie Greenspan  November 2009

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups plus 2 teaspoons warm water (105°F to 115°F), divided
• 1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 5 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for brushing
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup oil-cured black olives, pitted, quartered
• 1/2 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• Coarse kosher salt

Preparation

• Pour 2/3 cup warm water into 2-cup measuring cup. Sprinkle yeast, then sugar over; stir to blend. Let stand until yeast dissolves and mixture bubbles, 5 to 7 minutes. Add 1 cup warm water and 41/2 tablespoons oil.
• Mix flour and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt in bowl of heavy-duty mixer. Pour in yeast mixture. Attach dough hook; beat at medium-low speed until flour is moistened but looks shaggy, about 3 minutes. Increase speed to medium; beat until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and climbs hook, about 10 minutes (dough will be like sticky batter).
• Mix olives, tomatoes, rosemary, and lemon peel in medium bowl. Add to dough and beat 1 minute. Using sturdy spatula, stir dough by hand to blend.
• Lightly oil large bowl. Scrape dough into bowl. Brush top of dough with oil. Brush plastic wrap with oil; cover bowl, oiled side down. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled, 1 to 2 hours.
• Gently turn dough several times with spatula to deflate. Re-cover bowl with oiled plastic; chill overnight (dough will rise).
• Sprinkle 2 large rimmed baking sheets with flour. Using spatula, deflate dough by stirring or folding over several times. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Place 1 piece on floured work surface; sprinkle with flour. Roll out dough to 12x8- to 12x9-inch rectangle, sprinkling with flour to keep from sticking. Transfer dough to sheet.
• Using very sharp small knife, cut four 2-inch-long diagonal slashes just to right of center of rectangle and 4 more just to left of center to create pattern resembling leaf veins. Pull slashes apart with fingertips to make 3/4- to 1-inch-wide openings.
• Repeat with remaining dough. Cover dough with towel. Let rest 20 minutes. Beat 2 teaspoons water and 1 tablespoon oil in small bowl to blend for glaze.
• Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 450°F. Brush fougasses with glaze; sprinkle with coarse salt and pierce all over with fork.
• Bake fougasses 10 minutes. Reverse position of baking sheets and turn around. Bake fougasses until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.