Fougasse

I’m not really into S&M but for some reason I seem to enjoy torturing myself by daring to attempt playing with flour. I seem to get a real high from the rush of adrenaline that comes from my fear of making anything that is composed of flour, water, salt and yeast. I want to believe that I do have someone who bothers to check and actually read my blog once a week or once a month at least, so I’m going to assume that somebody actually noticed the absence of anything baked or made with flour. That is, if you won’t count the lonely foccaccia that I’ve made eons ago.



I was able to muster the courage to actually buy Richard Bertinet’s “Dough: Simple Contemporary Bread”, my first bread-baking book. Mr. Cat even threw in a new silver Kitchen Aid mixer which sadly is still in its pristine condition as you can see. Sorry Mr. Cat, I do love your present just so you know. Let’s just take one baby step at a time. We’ll get there.

Well, here I am right after one of my deviant feats. Richard Bertinet said that first time bakers should start with flat breads that way we will be spared from the disappointment and agony of seeing our very first loaf of bread collapse. I guess if that happened to me, I would never again attempt to bake anything. I’d just go to Fol Epi and buy bread there like I always do whenever I’m in the Dockside Green area.



In fact part of me is questioning my sanity for even bothering. With bakeries like Fol Epi, there has to be something wrong with you for wanting something more. Just look at that piece of sour dough. Don’t even talk about their baguettes. Well, maybe I’m slightly nuts so why the hell not. I’ve followed Richard Bertinet’s suggestion and started by making fouggase.



The foggase is basically the prettier and sexier cousin of foccacia. It’s a flat bread made with nothing but 18 ounces (3 ¾ cups) of all-purpose flour, 12 ½ ounces of water, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 ½ teaspoons of active dry yeast.



Basically you work the dough and let it rest for an hour then you cut it up into something pretty like this.



I’m a little bit freaked out about getting sued for infringement of copy right so if you want Richard Bertinet's step-by-step instructions of how to work the dough, just borrow his book from the library. The recipe for the dough is on page 33 and the instructions for making the fougasse are on pages 36 to 38. Here’s how my fougasse turned out.



It’s super pretty, don’t you think so? I don’t know if I did something wrong though but for some reason my fougasse seems a little bit lacking in flavour, it was kind of bland more like white bread. Hmn… I guess it is a white bread. Duh!!! The texture was great or I though so anyway. The crust looked pale but it made a crisp sharp satisfying crack when I took my first bite. And the structure of the crumb was like honeycomb, doughy (by that I mean substantial or doughy in a good way) but airy and light.



As for the blandness or whitebreadness (I don't know if that's even a word) slathering it generously with herb butter helped… I loved it!

Victory dance for Chowhound!!! Take that you silly bread!