Fougasse is a flat bread tied to Provence, France.
Fougasse's origin finds itself back to Ancient Rome with the term 'panis focacius'. The term embodied any type of flatbread that was cooked in the ashes of the hearth. Italy had theirs as Focaccia, while France had theirs as Fougasse. Back then, the the bread was typically used to test the heat of the oven. The time it took to cook the Fougasse gave bakers an idea of the oven's temperature. It is also traditionally cut to look like leaves as to speed up the cooking time.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup of water, warmed to 100F
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped, or 1 Tbsp dry
Instructions
In a large bowl, mix together warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand 5 minutes, or until the yeast starts to foam.
Mix in flour, salt, olive oil, and rosemary. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Turn the dough onto the counter and knead for 6-8 minutes, until a soft and springy dough forms, adding a little flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the counter or your hands.
Place the dough in a clean, greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel (or cover loosely with plastic wrap) and place in a warm (70F), draft-free place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 500F.
Once the dough has risen, knead it a couple of times and divide it into 6, roughly even, pieces. Knead each piece into a smooth ball and roll each ball into an oval, approximately 8”x5” and 1/2“ thick. (If you find the dough too springy to roll out, let is rest, covered, on the counter for a minute or two to relax the gluten, and then try again.
Place the rolled out dough on parchment-lined (or cornmeal dusted) baking sheets. Using a knife or bench scraper that has been dipped in flour, make one long cut down the center of each oval of dough, not cutting through the edges of the dough. Then, make 3-4 cuts at a 30 degree angle along each side of the center cut, again, not cutting all the way through, so that you are creating holes in the dough. Gently stretch the dough to accent the holes. Cover the rolled and cut dough and rise until slightly puffy, 15-20 min.
Bake the breads in a single layer in you preheated oven for 7-8 minutes, until golden and puffy. (If you don’t have enough room in your oven to bake them all at one time, keep the rolled and cut dough covered on the counter until its turn to bake. Since these bake so quickly, it will not harm the dough to wait its turn.) Remove the bread from the baking sheet and serve immediately or let cool on a wire rack.
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