Thursday, May 10, 2012

French Fridays With Dorie: Provencial Oilve Fougasse

HUBBY COMMENTED THAT THIS IS CONTAGIOUS--FUN AND FLAVORFUL
I should bake this Provencal Olive Fougasse again because now I know how I want it to turn out.

SOFT, STICKY DOUGH IS NOT MUCH THICKER THAN A BATTER
My fougasse was fun to make and delicious to eat, but it was not a beautiful rustic leaf.  My batter dough was obviously too soft even though I added an extra almost ½ cup of flour and maybe more if I count the rolling out flour addition.  My dough was to soft and sticky to roll out so I stretched it.  This was fine until I needed to move it to the baking sheets...way too soft.  It stretched to fit the entire pan.  Dorie wrote that “the dough will be very soft and sticky almost like a batter, and it will pool at the bottom of the bowl, but that’s fine.”

WHEN I LIFTED THE DOUGH TO MY PAN IT S-T-R-E-A-T-C-H-E-D

Well, my soft and sticky dough produced a fougasse that did not resemble Dorie's picture...my dough obviously needed another cup of flour to keep a shape.  I guess mine was TOO soft and sticky.
 
IT BAKED OK...BUT HAS AN EXTRA RUSTIC LOOK
Hubby and I both liked the flavor and texture of the olives; the other flavors were very subtle and overpowered by the olives and the salt.

Since most of us have acquired several lovely salts through our projects, I chose to use a Hawaiian white silver sea salt which glistened in the plentiful AZ sunlight.  This bread along with a simple salad were used as a relaxing on-the-patio snack.

Hubby, being from Pennsylvania and loving the PA Dutch foods, such as salty pretzels, loves to dip his salted breads in mustard like they do...so we followed suit, and also dipped this salted bread in mustard.

Even though I complain about my bread’s shapelessness, it was so tasty that I ate almost an entire baking sheet of this bread all by myself.  Hubby left for a bike ride so that he would stop eating.

Hubby was my only taster this time and besides liking this bread he also commented that they, meaning the French, like to put interesting items into their foods...I’m sure he meant olives in the bread.  I have used olives in breads in the past, but those breads have been more the artisan loaf style, making this was a different and interesting baking experience for me.  I think Dorie is right, this would be a fun picnic bread and with cheese it could make a meal.

HUBBY IS RIGHT, THIS FOUGASSE IS CONTAGIOUS
Hope your fougasse kept its leaf shape better than mine.  I’m interested to see how your baking projects fared.

HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY to every woman out there who does mothering of any kind!!!!!!!!!!!!
























18 comments:

  1. I love that your husband had to go out on a bike ride to get away from the bread :-)
    Have a great weekend & Happy Mother's Day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well I think yours is lovely despite the dough being too thin! I love the big pieces of salt!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I should have tried to escape my bread, instead I ate it! We finished it off with fried eggs this morning. A great combo. My dough was also very soft after the first rise but I was amazed at how much it firmed up during the refrigerator rising. Happy Mother's Day!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy Mother's Day to you too. Your fougasse looks wonderful. I finished one fougasse all to myself, so tell me , is it good? I will definitely make this again. I agree with Gyula that the first rise the dough was sticky and soft but after a night in the fridge it firm up pretty well and makes shaping easy .

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have Mother's Day right back at you! I found this bread very difficult to resist, especially the crunchy edges, my weakness! I let my dough spend the night in the fridge, maybe that made it firm up more? Anyway, we loved it and your loaves look perfect;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. That first word was supposed to say Happy!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That looks great. I agree, definitely , living in PA it does remind you of pretzels and mustard. Tricia and I enjoyed this one and hope to try other variations soon. Happy Mother's Day..

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think your bread looks great! But I totally support your decision to bake it again - I think I am going to make this about a million times because we liked it so much! Great job as always!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your fougasse came out perfect! A very creative way to serve it! Glad you enjoyed this bread…it was a hit for me too! Happy Mother’s Day to you, Kris! Enjoy your day!

    ReplyDelete
  11. So what do you think was wrong with your fougasse. It looked just like mine and I thought mine was perfect! I made mine according to the recipe and, truthfully, it wasn't as soft and sticky as yours appeared to be. Just thinking - maybe you didn't let it rise enough originally or did you chill it overnight or, at least, for several hours. It's a good flatbread and I'm glad we're both going to experiments with different ingredients and bake it again and again. I might add a little whole wheat flour next time.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think your fougasse looks beautiful. That's what I love about this is that it is fantasy bread so it can be any shape that we want.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow, your mixer looks so big in that photo! Like a professional baker's stand.

    Bread looks great, despite your worry.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This did look nice and rustic. Happy Mother's Day!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Now that you mention it, this was like a great soft pretzel. Yum! I'm glad it worked out, even if it was extra soft and sticky. I wish you a very Happy Mother's Day, Kris!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I can see it working well with mustard - there really is something pretzel-ish about it. Hope your Mother's Day is lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  17. it sounds like you had WAY too much liquid in it! If that happens again, you can just keep adding small amounts of flour at a time until you get the right consistency. It shouldn't have been that loose - but either way I'm glad it baked up properly for you! Lots of people have expressed trouble with shaping it and transferring to a baking sheet... maybe shape it on parchment next time or directly on the sheet? :) Glad you liked it after all that trouble!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Happy Mother's Day to you, Kris!!! I think the taste is much more important the the look...and yours still looks darn good despite the difficulties shaping and transferring~

    ReplyDelete