HONEST TOIL FOUGASSE
A fougasse is a flatbread traditionally shaped like the head of a wheat leaf – but
these days you can get away with any kind of score or pattern. It’s a fun, forgiving dough that’s pretty wet… you may find chunks of it on the wall days later.
This one uses plenty of luscious Honest Toil plus the last of summer tomatoes.
Here, we use a preferment – it’s the bread equivalent of using a delicious stock when making soup. Mix it a good few hours in advance or overnight in the fridge.
Top tip: be patient with the dough. Unfortunately it’s the boss!
PREFERMENT
125g strong white bread flour
125g water
1/4tsp instant yeast
DOUGH
125g strong white bread flour
70g warm water
1g fresh yeast
5g salt
Honest Toil extra virgin olive oil - as per needed, we keep glugging it happily :)
TOPPINGS
a few thyme sprigs, picked
125g cherry tomatoes, cut in half
50g parmesan or hard cheese
Make the pre-ferment by mixing the ingredients together and leaving for four hours,
or until bubbly and start to collapse in the middle.
Add in the rest of the dough ingredients, bring together until wet but not clumpy, and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
Come back and fold the dough over itself in the bowl for a good 5-10 minutes. The
dough should have some resistance and structure. Cover with oil and leave for 20
minutes, then fold the dough by bringing one corner up and over the others,
repeating with the other three corners. Leave for another 20 minutes and repeat, and then after another 20 minutes put the toppings on and fold again. Once the dough has doubled in size, pour it carefully onto an oiled baking sheet. Cut the dough into a leaf shape.
Preheat your oven to 230C. When the dough is puffy and your finger leaves an indentation, place it in the top of the oven, with a handful of ice cubes going in below it to release steam.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.
Recipe by Tomek
