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Having battered myself attempting to conquer (well...make peace with?) baguettes - hampered by still developing scoring techniques and an old gas oven that simply won't retain steam - this morning I decided to treat myself to something less daunting.  I've been looking at some of the flatbread recipes in Hamelman's Bread, and his fougasse recipe caught my interest.  It's simple and has a pleasing scoring pattern (no gringes, thank you very much).

The bake turned out nicely, I think, and the reaction of my pub companions with whom I shared the loaf was positive.  It yielded a nice crust, and a chewy crumb infused with flavor from the olives and the olive oil.  This is a wonderful snack-type bread that will disappear quickly, as it should.  With its large area of crust, including that around the decorative slits, it's not meant to store but bake and eat soon as it's cooled sufficiently.

I diverted from his recipe just a tad - instead of a small pinch of yeast in the pâte fermentée, I substituted 15% of my 60% hydrated sourdough starter.  The only noticeable difference was a slight hint of sourness to the pâte fermentée the next morning which I enjoyed.

The one challenge was moving the fougasse to my parchment covered peel.  Once you score the risen dough (I used a pizza cutter which worked well), the cuts tend to spring open immediately.  This is nice.  However, attempting to lift the fougasse onto the peel was a nightmare, as the cuts made it impossible to lift the dough without it stretching in every direction.  At first I looked at what appeared to be a hopeless mass, but with some patient rearranging I was able to reconstitute its shape.  In the future, I will probably do the final shaping and slashing with the dough on the peel to avoid potential disaster and aggravation.

Otherwise, it's remarkably simple and the the finished product elicits a very high "oooohhhh" factor when shown off.

Larry

I have this wonderful recipe that I've made many times.  I'd be interested in how I might convert this to a recipe using a starter instead of yeast>

BE honest - am I better off leaving well enough alone since I do LOVE this recipe?

-Susie

Coarse Salt and Rosemary Focaccia Bread

2 tsp Active Dry yeast
2 cup Warm Water
8 TB Olive Oil
5 C. Unbleached flour (can use bread flour or whatever you have)
1 TB Salt
3 TB Fresh Rosemary Leaves (I have been using dry)
1 TB Coarse Salt (Kosher Salt)

Combine yeast and warm water in bowl.
Add 3 TB olive oil to the water and let soak for 5 minutes

Mix the flour, 1 TB salt and 1/2 the Rosemary together.
Add the yeast water mixture to the flour. Stir with wooden spoon til mixed.

Turn onto floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes.

Place into lightly oiled bowl and let rise til double.

Punch down dough and spread onto lightly oiled jelly roll pan or cookie sheet.
Let rise again til doubled.
(You can also shape individual bun size (3" diam) portions and place on sheet to rise).

Before baking, punch indentations in top of dough with your fingers. Drizzle with
remaining Olive oil and sprinkle with the Coarse salt and remaining
Rosemary leaves. (I don't always use ALL of the oil and salt)

Bake at 450 for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

This recipe is fantastic when lightly toasted and served with
grilled chicken breast smothered in sauteed mushrooms and
onions and served with honey mustard sauce.

I've been enlisted to make the bread for pulled pork sandwiches.  My understanding is that hamburger buns are the usual roll, but as it's a special occasion I was thinking something else might work just as well if not better.  I'm not sure what might enhance these delicious homemade bbq sandwiches, or what flavors would work in with the bbq and coleslaw, but I'm open to any ideas you might have.

Thanks!

Miz

Not much activity in this folder lately, so I thought I'd post this weekend's baking in the WFO.

Made a double batch of SD bread starting with the PR recipe in BBA, but substituting 1/3 of the flour weight in the final dough -- about 12 oz. -- with whole wheat, 7-grain, oatmeal and barley. Also added 2 Tblsp. each of honey and brown sugar to counteract the bitterness of the 7-grain, and added some sunflour seeds and some pine nuts. Split the batch into 5 loaveabout s, batard shaped, and set them to rise. I tend to bake my loaves on parchment and I use scraps of wood between the loaves to keep things straight, and direct the rise up as opposed to out. Kind of a parchment couche. Then I cover the whole batch with plastic to rise:

About two hours later, I light the oven. This firing, I just burned a bunch of scraps from my woodshop -- about 1-1/2 liquor boxes worth.

Notice how the heat/smoke stratifies in the oven.

Two hours later, the loaves have fully risen, the oven has heated to "white hot", the fire has been raked out and the oven has been allowed to sit empty and closed to allow the heat to soak into the masonry. When the air temp gets down to around 500F, it's time to load 'er up.

I made two of the loaves into batards, and three into pan de epi. and loaded the oven.

Misting the loaves after loading. I use a garden sprayer with a fine spray that pretty much evaporates to steam before it ever hits the walls, etc.

20 minutes later, they're done. I really like the touch of WW and other stuff in these loaves. Despite the additions, they rose well and have a light and open crumb:

Then, the desert goes in -- this week it was peach/blueberry cobler with pecan streusel topping -- for another 20 minutes or so. Served with a nice chilly sangria. Major Yum!

(We also roasted a beer can chicken that had been started on the grill along with the desert, but I didn't get a pic of that.)

ClimbHi
Pittsburgh, PA