Fougasse

We adore Roasted Red Pepper Fougasse, but alas, no peppers on hand, so today we’ll bake two versions of fougasse -- onion rosemary flat bread and another topped with za'tar.

First the dough.  You can use any yeast or pizza dough you prefer. I’m a fan of the Master Dough recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and made a version of their olive oil dough, subbing whole wheat for some of the AP flour and using a tad more olive oil.

Onion and Rosemary Fougasse

Ingredients for basic dough

2 ½ c lukewarm water

1 ½ T yeast (or two packets)

1 T sugar

1 ½ T salt

4 T olive oil

4 c AP flour

2 ½ c whole wheat flour

Directions

1. Stir the yeast and sugar in the water and let it bloom for about 10 minutes.
2. Add the olive oil to the wet mix.
3. Combine salt and flours, then mix with wet ingredients.
4.  Mix until well combined. Some folks prefer no-knead method. I love my standup mixer. Using the dough hook, the ingredients combine to make a non-sticky dough after about 5 minutes. Works for me.
5. Cover and set aside for about 2 hours for the first rise.
6. Now you’re ready to form the fougasse. Don’t forget to pre-heat the oven to 425.
7.  Quick aside: Because you’ll have enough dough to make several fougasse, I suggest holding off adding the secondary components until you are ready to bake.
8. For the onion rosemary bread, I lightly browned ½ medium red onion in a tad of olive oil and drained it well on paper towels. Then I chopped about 2 T of rosemary fresh from the garden.
9. Divide the dough into 5. Take one of those and knead the half of the onion and rosemary into the dough, roll out to about ½" thin, then cut slits in the traditional design. Fougasse looks like a leaf. Like this or this or this. This short video demystifies the process. 
10. I topped the second batch with za’tar.. Brush the top of the dough lightly with olive oil, then sprinkle the herbs and maldon salt.
11. If you’re famished, you can actually throw this in the oven now. But letting the dough sit for 20-30 minutes yields a slightly lightly bread. Remember to brush the top with olive oil before popping it in the oven.
12. If you use a baking stone, you know the drill. Sprinkle it lightly with cornmeal, then slide on the bread. Otherwise, a baking sheet with parchment paper works well.
13. Bake until golden, about 20-25 minutes.
14. Then mangia. Fougasse is best eaten fresh from the oven!