Easy Sourdough Fougasse Recipe
A delicious and easy sourdough fougasse recipe. It's baked until golden and topped with coarse salt and herbs. This recipe makes 2.
Ingredients
Sourdough starter
- 20 g starter
- 40 g flour
- 40 g water
Fougasse
- 420 g all-purpose flour or bread flour with a protein level of at least 11%
- 300 g water
- all the sourdough starter around 100g
- 20 g olive oil
- 8 g salt
Toppings
- 3 Tbsp Olive oil plus extra for brushing after baking
- Coarse salt
- Fresh rosemary and/or thyme
Instructions
Starter
- Mix the starter, flour and water together in a bowl until well combined. Transfer to a clean jar and mark the level with a rubber band or marker so you can see the rise.
- Leave at room temperature until it has at least doubled and is domed and bubbly. Use it before it peaks and collapses.
Dough
- In a large bowl, mix the flour and water together with a fork or your hands until no dry flour remains. It will be shaggy. Cover and autolyse for 30 minutes.
- Add the ripe starter, salt and olive oil. Squeeze everything together with wet hands until it forms a sticky dough.
- Knead the dough for 5 to 8 minutes, either against the side of the bowl with a wet hand, or by slapping and folding it on an unfloured bench. Do not add extra flour. It is ready when it is noticeably smoother and elastic, and springs back when pressed. Return it to a clean bowl.
- Over the next hour, perform 2 sets of stretch and folds, spaced about 30 minutes apart. With wet hands, stretch a portion of dough up and fold it over the centre, rotating the bowl and repeating 3 to 4 times per set.
- Cover the bowl and bulk ferment at warm room temperature until the dough has risen by 30-40% and is showing some bubbles or signs of activity on top. These times assume a dough temperature of around 25°C, which takes roughly 2 to 3 hours. I use a dough proofing box, but a warm spot works too, such as the oven with just the light on or the top of the fridge. A cooler kitchen will take longer, so go by how the dough looks rather than the clock.
- For same day baking, continue to the pre-shape. For an overnight ferment, cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for 8-12 hours, then continue the next day with the cold dough.
Divide and pre-shape
- Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it in half. Each piece will be around 420g. Fold the edges of each piece into the centre, flip over, and shape into a loose round. Rest for 30 minutes, or closer to an hour if the dough has come from the fridge.
Shape
- If you have a stone or steel, shape each fougasse on parchment paper set on a board, pizza peel or upside-down baking tray, so you can slide it directly onto the hot stone or steel at baking time. If you don't have one, you can bake the fougasse on a regular baking tray. For a slightly crisper base, you can optionally preheat the tray and shape the fougasse on parchment set on a board, then slide it onto the hot tray when it's time to bake. Either way, shape the dough on parchment paper.
- Brush the parchment generously with olive oil. Transfer a round of dough onto each with a bench scraper.
- Dust the tops with flour and use your fingertips to press each piece into a rectangle or oval around 25cm (10 inches) long.
- Make two cuts in a line down the centre of each piece, one in the upper half and one in the lower, leaving 3 to 4cm of uncut dough between them and stopping around 3cm short of the top and bottom edges. This bridge of dough in the middle holds the fougasse together, so don't join the two cuts up.
- Make 2 to 3 shorter cuts on each side, angled outwards from the centre like the veins of a leaf, stopping about 3cm before the outer edge. Every cut must go all the way through the dough to the paper.
- With oiled hands, gently pull the cuts open, working from the centre outwards and pulling sideways. Open them wider than you think you need to.
- Cover the trays loosely and leave to rise until noticeably puffy. Same day dough will take 1 to 2 hours, dough from the fridge will take longer. Once the fougasse is starting to look visibly puffy, preheat the oven to 220°C (430°F). If you're using a stone, steel, or a tray you're preheating, put it in at the same time, since a stone or steel needs a good hour to come properly up to temperature.
Top and bake
- Before topping, run a finger back through any cuts that have closed up during the rise, opening them out again.
- Brush the first fougasse with olive oil and scatter the herb leaves over. Lay the rosemary on top of the thyme if using both, pressing the larger pieces down into the dough.
- Drizzle a little more olive oil over the herbs then sprinkle with coarse salt.
- Bake the first tray for 18 to 22 minutes, until deeply golden.
- Straight out of the oven, brush the surface with a little more olive oil and scatter over more chopped fresh herbs. It will be very crisp from the oven and will soften a little as it cools.
- Top and bake the second tray the same way. If your kitchen is warm, keep the second tray in the fridge while the first bakes and bring it out just before topping.
- Serve warm or at room temperature, torn into pieces.
Notes
Storage. Best on the day it's baked. Keep in a paper bag at room temperature for up to 2 days and refresh in a 180°C (350°F) oven for 5 minutes. Freezes for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Serving: 1servingCalories: 71kcalCarbohydrates: 3gProtein: 0.5gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gSodium: 273mgPotassium: 4mgFiber: 0.1gSugar: 0.01gCalcium: 2mgIron: 0.2mg
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