Fougasse - Fresh From The Oven Challenge

This month’s Fresh from the Oven challenge is to bake Fougasse and was hosted by the lovely Claire at Purely Food who runs the Fresh from the Oven Blog.  Claire left it up to us members to decide which recipe we used.  Therefore I decided to use the recipe from the Hairy Bikers Mums Know Best Cookbook.  It is SO easy, you should give it a go!

For the dough, you will need:

2 Tblsp Olive OIl

450g bread flour

7g Dried Yeast

1 tsp Salt

275ml Warm Water

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl to make a smooth but sticky dough.  Leave it to rise for 30 minutes, then knead for about 10 minutes.
 
Then roll out the dough into two large ovals and cut several slashes in it with a knife - this makes it easier to tear apart later on.  Leave the dough to rest for at least 45 minutes whilst you make the topping.  Preheat your oven to 200C.
 
Suggested Topping from the book:
 
1 x 60g jar of anchovies in oil
 
2 large cloves of garlic, peeled
 
10 green olives
 
2 Tblsp Olive Oil (from the jar of anchovies)
 
Use a stick blender to mix everything to a smooth paste and then spread the paste over the dough.  It will be a thin paste but you don't need much.  Place the fougasse on a baking tray and bake for 15 - 20 minutes - take care that they don't dry out too much.
 
Drizzle a littel olive oil over the cooked Fougasse and serve with a glass of chilled wine. Oh yes!!
 
After discussing the challenge with Aurelie, one of the other Mums at school who is French and hires herself out as a private chef, I used some tomato, anchovy and olive paste that I was sent with other ingredients from the Vaucluse Tourist Board to brush on top of the Fougasse.  (I blogged about the other ingredients I received in this post.)
 
Here's my Fougasse:

I did enjoy eating some with a chilled glass of wine, as did our neighbours. many thanks to Claire from  Purely Food for hosting the challenge and for all her hard work administering the Fresh from the Oven blog.