"Working from home" obviously isn't panning out for me. I spent all day baking bread instead of working. I did have maybe my most successful round of baking so far though. I made three fougasse, loosely based on Maurizio's SD fougasse recipe. I found that half of his recipe could make me three decently-sized fougasse, provided you make them as thin and holey as I did. They were delicious, my flatmate said it was her favorite bread I've made yet.
At this point I've basically settled on an SD recipe that I can do without having to think or plan too far ahead. This isn't a definitive formula, my process changes every time. I like to think I've developed enough intuition to let me make adjustments on the fly and correct for minor errors in timing.
Ingredients
Levain build
20 g AP flour
5 g WW flour
5 g rye flour
30 g water
Main dough
240 g KAF AP flour
30 g KAF WW flour
30 g Arrowhead Rye flour
190 g water
6 g salt
60 g starter
Soaker
10 g oatmeal
10 g milled flax
50 g hot water (78% total hydration)
Steps
1. Mix flours and water together for a 1-hour autolyse
2. Combine soaker ingredients with the salt (for easy incorporation into the dough)
3. Gently fold starter into the dough and wait 30 minutes, do another S&F 15 minutes in
4. Gently fold the soaker into the dough
5. Bulk ferment for 6-7 hours, with 4 rounds of S&F in 30 minute intervals
6. Cold ferment for at least 8 hours
7. Take dough out of fridge, bench rest for 40 minutes
8. Pre-shape, bench rest for 20 minutes
9. Preheat oven at 500 F
10. Shape and final proof for 40 minutes to 1 hour (I let the initial bench rest go for too long, so I put the loaves into the fridge to slow the fermentation down while I let the oven heat up for longer)
11. Score and load loaf into dutch oven with 3 ice cubes
12. Bake at 500 F for 20 minutes, covered, then bake at 420 for an additional 15 minutes at convection, uncovered (cover with foil for the last 5 minutes if necessary)
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I’ve never made fougasse. It is very crunchy?
You loaf is beautiful. I love oats and flax in bread. Nice combo!
I think I'd liken it to pizza crust, since the dough is sort of low hydration and has olive oil in it. I also baked it without steam, so its probably a little drier and more dense than in the original recipe. It was definitely chewy and crunchy in the first few hours, and a little leathery (though not in a bad way) over the next day. It was really fun to make!
Your breads all look lovely. I’ve also never made fougasse before but have always wanted to give it a try.
Benny
Fougasse is fun to make and looks really cool.