October 3, 2008 - 6:03am
Fougasse?
Hi all,
Has anyone any advice to offer on fougasse? I've only had it a couple of times, at the Standard Baking Co. in Portland (Maine), but I occasionally find myself obsessing about it. They make one that is completely crusted in poppy seeds, sesame seeds and salt, and is the most amazingly decadent (and messy) thing to eat.
I've looked at Hamelman's recipe but haven't tried it yet because it didn't seem, well, over the top enough. His looks more like interestingly shaped regular bread.
Do I just have to over come my fear of fats and just have a really heavy hand with the olive oil? I don't actually know when I'll have time to try this, but I'd like to at some point; Portland is really far away...
Thanks,
edh
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I know Nancy Silverton has one in her Breads From Labrea Bakery book. Not having it in front of me I couldn't tell you if it is any different but I do know she is obsessive about her breads.
Overcome your fears fougasse is a fun bread to make. Here is how I made Whole Wheat Sourdough Fougasse as posted in my blog at sourdough.com.
http://sourdough.com/blog/leaddog/whole-wheat-fougasse
Take a look at the recipe in "Baking with Julia". The recipe was contributed by Craig Kominiak, who at that time (copyright 1996) was executive chef for Ecce Panis Bakeries in New York. He uses his focaccia dough recipe for the fougasse. I haven't made this one so I can't comment on how good it is.
Thanks all,
I'll be asking the library to find me both books (ah, the wonders of inter-library loan programs; a real life saver for small town libraries!), but I might just leap in and try Hamelman's as well, with a heavy hand on the oil...I'm just not sure how Standard Baking gets theirs so completely encrusted with the seeds.
Sounds like a good project for later in the Fall...
LeadDog, I couldn't follow your link, just got a page not found message? I'd love to see pics of something someone has actually done!
Thanks again,
edh
I have the same problem with the link. The only way I know that you can see the pictures then is to go to http://sourdough.com and at the bottom of the page is a section called recent blog posts. There you will see a link to my blog post called Whole Wheat Fougasse.
There is also a bunch of picture in the forum at sourdough.com of Fougasse as August was the Fougasse bake off month.
Fougasse only mean it shaped like a leaf... the bread repersenting harvest leaves.. that's it.. nothing much.
You can make Fougasse with any bread, my favorite is the cheese bread (made w/ light swiss). Anyhow, to get the seeds to encrsted the bread completely, try egg wash