Storified by Lucette Delacroix· Wed, Apr 10 2013 20:40:57
Nice and creamy in the middle and crispy on the outside, Fougasse is a delicious flat bread stuffed with bacon, cheese or olives. It has many variations including ones stuffed with anchovies, dried fruits, nuts, or herbs. Every region in France has their version but it is typically associated with Provence. In this gourmet recipe, Chef Stephane Raimbault shows you how to make Fougasse the way it is traditionally done. He makes two types separately, one stuffed with black olives and olive paste, and the other stuffed with lard-on or thick bacon cubes and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Before baking the bread, he slashes the stuffed dough to make a lattice pattern similar to an ear of wheat. This makes the bread all the more crunchy and scrumptious and also makes the bread easier to pull apart. It also makes it easier to determine which one is stuffed with bacon and which one is stuffed with olives. Other popular patterns resemble a leaf or a tree.
The preparation for this recipe can be broken down into three parts: making the dough, making the creamy stuffing, and spreading the black olives and bacon and folding the dough to seal the stuffing. While waiting for the dough to rise, which roughly takes about 20 minutes, the creamy stuffing is made. This is made of olive oil, milk, and flour, and seasoned with salt and pepper, and is what makes the fougasse soft in the middle.
Chef Rimbault uses a kneading machine to make the dough in this recipe to ensure an even, light and fine result. To get an exceptional crust, spray some water using the preheated oven to create some steam. A good fifteen to twenty squirts will do. You can also add five more squirts after loading the oven and immediately closing the door.
Mix the water and milk. Add the yeast then stir it well. Add the olive oil. Set aside.
Mix wheat flour and chick-pea flour. Pour the mixture into a kneading machine, add the butter, then start the machine. Pour the liquid mixture into it then wait for five minutes. Add the salt. Wait for another five minutes, then the dough is done. Turn the machine off, add a touch of flour, and then take the dough out. Lift the dough a little to smooth, set it aside then let the dough stand for 20 minutes.
While keeping the dough aside, prepare the stuffing. Mix together the milk, olive oil, and flour in a mixing bowl. Add ground pepper and stir it again. Then set aside.
After the dough has been rising for twenty minutes, cut it into 350g pieces for the Fougasse. Smooth each piece and fold it over on itself then let the balls of dough rise for another 5 minutes.
Roll the dough with a rolling pin into a rectangular shape. Cover some by spreading on it the stuffing made earlier. Make an olive garnish by mixing olives and olive paste then spread on the stuffing covered dough but don’t cover them fully. Fold them over by taking both ends to the middle while slightly overlapping each other. Dress other dough with bacon and then sprinkle with parmesan. Roll each dough a little.
On the dough stuffed with bacon, sprinkle with Swiss cheese then some flour on the olive filled Fougasse. Cut through it in six’s using a dough cutter then separate the pieces. Bake for 20 minutes.
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