Recipe: make French fougasse bread at home

When I teach people to make bread this is always one of the first recipes I get them to try because fougasses are simple, and yet so smart and impressive looking, with a texture that is crunchy on the outside and soft inside. 

When the fougasses come out of the oven I see everyone wearing what I call, ‘the fougasse grin’ that says, ‘Look what I’ve made!’

In all cookery, what goes around comes around as fashions constantly change. The contemporary-looking fougasses that you see are in fact just a reincarnation of an idea that has been around for a very long time. 

The original fougasse is a flatbread that belongs to the same family as focaccia – the word comes from the Latin word ‘focus’, which means hearth – because the breads, which were like pancakes, were cooked under the cinders in the hearth.

I like to use maize flour for dusting this bread as it gives the crust a rich golden colour and creates the impression that the fougasse has been baked in a wood-fired oven. 

You can make fougasses with olive, rye or brown dough, too.

Makes 6 fougasses

PREPARATION: 20 minutes

RESTING: 1 hour

BAKING: 10–12 minutes

• 1 batch white dough (see below) rested for 1 hour
• white or maize
• flour for dusting

White dough ingredients – one batch

• 10g 1⁄3oz) fresh yeast
• 500g (18oz) strong bread flour
• 10g (1⁄3oz) salt
• 350g (12oz) water

Method

1. Flour your work surface well and also the top of your dough in the bowl. Use the rounded end of your plastic scraper to release the dough from the bowl, so that you can scoop it out easily in one piece and transfer it to the work surface without stretching it. The dusted side of the dough should now be facing downwards. Be careful not to deflate the dough when handling it but let it spread out to cover a square of your work surface. Generously flour the top of the dough.

2. Using the flat edge of your scraper, cut the dough into two rectangles, and then cut each piece again into three roughly rectangular pieces. Again handle the dough as gently as you can so that it stays as light and full of air as possible. Keep the pieces well-floured.

3. Take one of the pieces of dough and use the flat edge of your scraper to make a large diagonal cut across the centre, making sure that you don’t go right to the edges of the dough, but cut all the way through the dough onto your work surface. Then make three smaller diagonal cuts fanning out on each side of the central one. Put your fingers into the slits and gently open them out to form holes. Be bold. In my classes, sometimes people try to make complicated patterns with lots of little cuts but, of course when the dough bakes, they will close up. It is better to make fewer cuts and really open out the holes.

4. Lift onto a lightly floured wooden peel or flat-edged baking tray and from here slide onto the hot baking stone or upturned tray in the preheated oven. Do this as quickly as possible, to avoid letting heat out of the oven. Turn the heat down to 230°C (450°F) and bake for 10–12 minutes until golden brown.

Variations

After the dough has been worked by hand or mixed, just before you leave it to rest, add some halved olives (buy good-quality ones with the stone in, and take the stone out yourself), roasted peppers, roasted onions or just press some fresh rosemary or thyme leaves into each fougasse before baking.

Part-baking for the freezer: If you want to freeze your fougasses, three-quarter bake them for 6–7 minutes, then remove them from the oven, cool, wrap in freezer bags and freeze. To use, bake from frozen at 180–200ºC (350–400°F) for 12 minutes.

Dough by Richard Bertinet, £20.00. Published by Kyle Books Photography by Jean Cazals.