Fougasse is a French bread from Provence / south Eastern France. There are so many regional varieties of this bread available. The bread is crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. The bread is mostly shaped like a leaf and topped with garlic and olive oil. When I first made it, I ended up with a hard bread as the temperature of my oven was too low. As the bread is thinner compared to other breads, they need to be baked for a shorter period in a very hot oven. So I made it again in my Morphy Richards oven on max heat and it turned out delicious. For the first try, I topped the bread with garlic, but they became so bitter when baked. So for the next try, I added both garlic and rosemary in the dough and topped the bread with sesame seeds. My daughter loved it so much.
What I love most in this bread is the shaping. The dough is rolled into leaf shape and slashes are made with a knife and then they are separated to form the beautiful leaf shaped fougasse. You can do a variety of shapes in fougasse. I tried two shapes. They bake faster, so keep an eye on it. Otherwise it will become too hard. This can be had with soup or salad but we just had it as it is. It is so flavourful with the herb and garlic. And the olive oil shines through.
Ingredients:
Flour – 2 cups
Salt – 1/2 tsp
Olive Oil – 2 tbs
Instant Yeast – 1/2 tsp
Dried Rosemary – 1/2 tsp, crushed
Warm Water – 3/4 cup
Garlic – 2 cloves, grated
Sesame Seeds – 2 tbs
Pepper Powder – a little
Procedure:
In a bowl mix together flour, salt, olive oil, instant yeast, garlic and rosemary.
Add water and make a soft dough.
Knead it for 3-4 minutes.
Apply oil in a bowl, place the kneaded dough inside, coat the top with oil and cover with cling wrap.
Set aside for 1 hour or until double in volume.
Puch down dough and dust with flour.
Divide it into two portions.
Roll it into a thin triangle.
With the help of a pizza cutter, make a slit in the middle, leaving one inch on both sides.
Now make diagonal side slits like the veins of a leaf leaving 1” intact between the centre cut and the sides.
Pull the dough to enlarge the cuts.
Brush with milk, sprinkle sesame seeds.
Set aside for 15 minutes.
By the time, preheat oven to 225C.
Place the tray on the lowest rack and bake for 10 minutes.
Replace the tray on the top rack and bake for 5 more minutes.
Remove from oven and enjoy piping hot..
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Garlic Rosemary Fougasse Recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients
- Flour – 2 cups
- Salt – 1/2 tsp
- Olive Oil – 2 tbs
- Instant Yeast – 1/2 tsp
- Dried Rosemary – 1/2 tsp crushed
- Warm Water – 3/4 cup
- Garlic – 2 cloves grated
- Sesame Seeds – 2 tbs
- Pepper Powder – a little
Instructions
Procedure
- In a bowl mix together flour, salt, olive oil, instant yeast, garlic and rosemary.
- Add water and make a soft dough.
- Knead it for 3-4 minutes.
- Apply oil in a bowl, place the kneaded dough inside, coat the top with oil and cover with cling wrap.
- Set aside for 1 hour or until double in volume.
- Punch down dough and dust with flour.
- Divide it into two portions.
- Roll it into a thin triangle.
- With the help of a pizza cutter, make a slit in the middle, leaving one inch on both sides.
- Now make diagonal side slits like the veins of a leaf leaving 1” intact between the centre cut and the sides.
- Pull the dough to enlarge the cuts.
- Brush with milk, sprinkle sesame seeds.
- Set aside for 15 minutes.
- By the time, preheat oven to 225C.
- Place the tray on the lowest rack and bake for 10 minutes.
- Replace the tray on the top rack and bake for 5 more minutes.
- Remove from oven and enjoy piping hot..
Looks good! Will try. I made Afghani Rote last night. It is really easy and lasts long. Great with a cup of tea.
Beautifully shaped bread, Gayathri! Garlic and rosemary flavor sounds good.
The bread looks attractive and flavorful too . Hats off for tring all over again.
So beautiful looking bread.Love the cute shape.
agree the shape is beautiful nice one
Beautiful shapes, beautiful flavours ! I had bookmarked one from Varada’s blog last year and look forward to making this soon. I didn’t quite understand how to roll into a leaf shape though, Gayatri . Do we need a mould for that ?
No Kalyani, the dough is easy to shape. Just start rolling it from a tear shaped dough..
Your fougasse has turned out so good..very nicely shaped.
Beautifully shaped and flavorful bread.
You have nailed the fougasse! Looks so pretty and love the flavors.
Nicely shaped bread. I am sure the rosemary flavor was delightful.
beautiful.. Love the step by step pics. It helps a lot for a beginner in baking like me. Need to try these yummylicious breads soon.
Had made this ages ago when I did baking in a group. They are yummy.You have an amazing shaped leaf here.
The Fougasse looks awesome. Cute leaf shaped!! I’m getting inspired by all your shaped bread pics and recipes as they are all eggless and you have nailed them to perfect.
Love fougasse very much and yours looks beautiful and flavourful Gayathri.
When I saw the pic of bread, it came to my mind ..who else could be behind this bread other than Gayatri….a die hard fan of yours 🙂
I have this on my mind since forever! I loved the way you shaped it and baked it perfectly golden brown. Great series of flatbreads!
Lovely bread Gayathri. Yes I too fell in love with the shape and baked them once.
Lovely bread gayathri. Should start book marking all your recipes for the next mega BM 🙂
Fougasse has been on my to-bake list for quite some time now. Yours turned out great — will have to try this some time soon.
I tried fougassse a couple of times but they were too thick and hard. Yours looks perfect and exactly how it is supposed to be. Yumm