Sugarcraft at Home: Fougasse

You were expecting jam, weren't you? And quite rightly too. Chef Anees makes a lovely range of quirky jams and he first shared with me a recipe for his red pepper and chilli jam. But I couldn't find any pectin at short notice so he sent along a second recipe for a cherry tomato and onion fougasse.

The dough was easy to make and an absolute delight to work with. I've made some adjustments to allow for how my yeast works, and I ended up using sundried tomatoes but it's a lovely, lovey bread either way. The original recipe was for 4 fougasse breads but I have halved it here to make two.

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried or fresh oregano
2-3 sundried tomatoes (the ones that come in oil)
1 small onion. thinly sliced
sea salt

Heat the water to a little bit warmer than lukewarm. Add olive oil, sugar and yeast. Leave it aside for 5 minutes until the yeast is all bubbly. Add the flour, salt and oregano and knead the dough until smooth. Roll into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and set it aside for 30-45 minutes until doubled. Divide the risen dough into two equal parts. Roll each part out to a rough rectangle, then make the slashes on both sides of the rectangle with a pizza cutter or a very sharp knife. Lift up the dough from the top so the cuts will open up into the fougasse shape. Pop the fougasse onto an oiled baking sheet and let rest for 30 minutes.

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 220C. Brush the oil from the jar of sundried tomatoes all over the shaped bread. Top with thinly sliced sundried tomatoes and onions and sprinkle some flaky sea salt. Pop into the oven and bake until browned.

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