Fougasse while I wait

Toast

Have a 40+ hour sourdough on the go. Decided to do a tomato, basil and olive oil fougasse while I wait. This thing is bigger than my oven so couldn't open the cuts big enough for some not to fuse. Looks and smells good though. 

I love the crust on that one. Looks sooooo yummy. :)

I did a bold bake but it wasn't this dark. As soon as I took it out of the oven I sprayed it with olive oil and it turned the colour you see. Glad I did :) 

Surprised myself with this one. 

Can't wait to taste it. Made the dough with tomato paste and olive oil then sprinkled the basil on top. It's beckoning to me. 

3 days! And I thought I had patience. They're gonna taste wonderful. 

I recently read... the quicker the bread the quicker it goes stale. Your poolish buns are gonna stay fresh till the next decade :)

really knocks them down activity wise so you can keep them in there for a really long time if necessary.  many pizza dough recipes call for a minimum of 3 days in the fridge.  Time in the fridge doesn't count for slow when it comes to yeast bread.  Oddly, after baking, the worst temperature to keep yeast bread is at 36-40 F, refrigerator temperate, if you want to keep it fresh - that is the temperature it stales the fastest.

Day old bread got the term because yeast bread would stale in 1 day and bread older was sold at half price,  Now commercial bakeries put tons of stuff in their bread to keep it from staling for a very long time if left on the counter.

I don't think fast has anything to do with how fast yeast bread stales.   Sourdough is completely different animal when it comes to staling and everything else bread wise except how you eat it - open mouth, insert bread, chew and swallow - if stale eat with wine or beer :-)

I still don't know exactly how I managed it. I'm thinking it'll go well with some eggs (I actually found duck eggs in my local supermarket), Italian salad and some onion bahjias.

glad I gave you an good idea - now I have more ideas on how it goes as well.  Tomato and basil are so yummy!! Will be more adventuresome next time too, I love the bake on yours and wish I could sample it!  

Happy baking Abe

Leslie

All your idea. Saw your bake and wished to try it myself. Did a quick search for a recipe and found this... https://jelliedwhale.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/fougasse/

Then I gave it a few tweaks of my own and came up with this...

 

Ingredients

250g strong bread flour

170g water

20g tomato paste

5g salt

5g dried yeast

1 tablespoon olive oil

Dried Basil

 

Method

1. Measured out the flour in a bowl.

2. Added the yeast and salt, making sure they're kept apart, and the oil.

3. Mixed the tomato paste in the water till fully distributed then added it to the flour and formed the dough.

4. Kneaded till full gluten formation.

5. Transferred to an oiled bowl, covered and left to bulk ferment till ready (60 - 90 minutes).

6. Pre-shaped into a round, rest for 15-20 minutes.

7. Form the leaf with cuts then sprinkle with dried basil. 

8. Final proof for 1 hour. 

9. Bake in preheated oven at 220C for 10-15 minutes or until ready. 

10. Take out of oven then spray, or brush, with olive oil.

11. Allow to cool. 

 

Really tasty. I had half with dinner. 

 

This was very last minute as I made up my mind to do it when I saw yours. But if I were to do it again I'd probably stretch out the timing a bit more incorporating a poolish.

 

Like you it was a relatively last minute thing and I had often thought what a cool bread to try, so now I have 2 variations! yippee!  A more planned one using poolish - yes definitely. I think your bake has come out bolder - I baked both together on different shelves in the oven (on tiles) so maybe next time I will fit them on one shelf and get that richer caramelisation.

What fun!

Leslie

It was a good bake but that deep rich colour came when I added the oil after the bake.

I'm a fougasse convert now and look forward to seeing your bakes and ideas. This was a taster but I definitely am going to plan a slower, more deliberate, one next time. 

Ideas always welcome! 

Yes... It was a fun bake. 

Looks amazing I can only imagine the taste currently salivating !! Keep then coming Lechem!

I do like the idea of a tear and share bread. It was very enjoyable to bake. Something different for a change. 

Watch this space :) 

Well done Abe!! 

Hope you'll tell us how the 40 hour sourdough goes! 

Happy baking.

Ru

 

It is delicious. A pleasure and fun to make too. Got some good ideas for next time. 

Just shaped the sourdough and onto the 4-5 hour final proof (this long because it's been in the fridge for 24 hours and needs time to warm up too). 

So far, so good!