Fougasse with dates and pistachios

I really like making bread at home, but the truth is that, being practical as I am, I tend to look for uncomplicated recipes since bread can take a lot of time.

The recipe that Eva, from Bake-Street , brings us today, fits perfectly with the type of recipes that I like: with a very easy-to-follow step-by-step, with ingredients that you will find easily and a result that, apart from being delicious, will surprise you on the whole. home.

Eating freshly baked bread is one of the greatest pleasures I know, and if it's made at home, much better.

I know that to many of you it may seem like one of those preparations that can set you back a bit and even more so if we talk about the use of preferments, which in the end is much less than it seems and combines phenomenally with our rhythm of life.

But, it is also true that there is a great variety of breads made with commercial yeast that, if we do not abuse it, can give us very tender and spongy breads with an exceptional result.

Today I will show you how to make a variety of traditional bread from French cuisine closely associated with Provence, the fougasse. Originally the bakers made them to know the temperature at which their wood oven was and then they became their lunch.

A very simple bread to make, in just 3 hours we can have them ready and enjoy them to accompany a good appetizer, an unexpected meal or surprise our family/guests with their attractive leafy appearance.

As dates are approaching soon when we like to make somewhat more elaborate preparations and with more special ingredients, I thought of a combination that never fails: dates and pistachios. Of course, if any of you prefer others, there is no major problem in varying them or even omitting them.
And to present them, nothing better than this beautiful basket together with the baguette board where we can put a wide variety of cheeses, pâtés, jams, fruits... Anything that we like the most because bread goes well with everything ;)

Kitchen Craft Wire Basket and Baguette Board MasterClass

INGREDIENTS (for 4 medium fougasse)

• 455 g of bakery wheat flour (I used extra flour with W=180)
• 4 g dry yeast / 12 g fresh yeast
• 9g of salt
• 295g of water
• 30g olive oil
• 2 large dates, Medjoul type
• 15-20g shelled heavy pistachios
• semolina and/or flour for dusting (optional)

ELABORATION

1. In a large bowl , add the wheat flour together with the water, mix with the help of a silicone spatula or our hands until both ingredients are integrated.
2. Cover with a cotton cloth and let autolysis (a process by which the flour hydrates and reduces the subsequent kneading time) for 20 minutes.
3. While we chop the dates, we remove the shells from the pistachios and lightly pass them through the mortar to mash them a little without making crumbs with them.
4. After this time we take the dough out of the bowl and move to a clean work surface without any flour. Add the yeast and mix. Add the salt and mix again.
5. We work the dough by hard kneading (or traditional kneading, as you can see in the post "Bread, basic concepts and techniques" ) until we have more or less developed our gluten mesh.
6. For this we must perform the membrane test. We take a small portion of dough, either a piece or slightly lifting a fold of the dough, and gently stretch between the fingertips. When our dough has a good development, without reaching 100%, it will allow us to stretch it without breaking, creating a fine veil.
7. If the dough breaks when performing this step, we must let it rest for a few minutes, always covered to prevent it from drying out, and then continue kneading for another couple of minutes.
8. We love 2 minutes and leave 4-5 minutes of rest.
9. As soon as it is developed, we add the oil. We must not add it before developing the gluten mesh, otherwise it would be more difficult for us to do so and we may not achieve optimal results.
10. When we pour the oil on the dough, it will spread all over the surface and even the table where we work. Nothing happens, we knead trying to catch all the oil as we work the dough.
11. Once it is fully integrated, we will add the chopped dates along with the pistachios lightly passed through a mortar. We should not do it before because it will make it difficult for us to develop the gluten mesh and once we are doing this step, we should not knead too much with the added ingredients so as not to damage it.
12. We will roll our dough trying to exert tension. To do this, we will help ourselves with the edges of our hands, introducing them through the base of the dough and gently pushing it from one side to the other. We press and remove with a quick and dry movement, in this way we will prevent it from adhering to our hands.
13. Grease a bowl or tupperware and introduce our dough inside, cover and let it rest for 45 minutes.
14. “In case you use a mixer (kitchen aid type) you must add the ingredients in the same order that I specify to do it manually. We will use the hook and the kneading time will be somewhat less than if we do it manually."
15. After that time we fold our dough: we take one end of the dough and fold it in on itself, turn the tupperware 180º and take that end and fold it back on itself. Now we turn the tupperware 90º and repeat the operation, we end up turning the tupperware 180º and making the last fold.
16. We let rest for 30 minutes. After this rest we repeat the same operation two more times, in total there will be 3 folds every 30 minutes.
17. Preheat the oven to 240ºC with heat up and down. We must do it 30 minutes before putting the bread in the oven.
18. If you use a stone or steel plate for baking, you must put it in the oven when preheating.
19. Once the last rest has finished we will form our fougasse.
20. We prepare our shovel/table or surface that will serve us to transport the fougasse into the oven.
21. If we use a baking stone, it will be enough to sprinkle the blade/board with a little flour and/or semolina. If we use a steel plate or ordinary baking tray, we will place a sheet of baking paper on the blade/board and sprinkle with a little flour and/or semolina.
22. We divide the dough into 4 pieces of the same size, approximately 200 g each.
23. Carefully roll out the dough using your hands, trying to give it a triangular shape, approximately 15 cm long. With the help of a steel scraper or a sharp knife we ​​will make the cuts.
24. We will make a central cut, this will be the longest of all without reaching the final ends of the dough.
25. Then we will make 3 more cuts on each side slightly inclined.
26. With the help of our fingers we will open the cuts that we have made and we will finish shaping our fougasse. In case the dough sticks to our hands, we will sprinkle them with flour or semolina.
27. Lightly sprinkle with flour and/or semolina, cover with a cotton cloth and let rest for 15-25 minutes, depending on the temperature. We must observe that they have increased their volume and the surface is swollen.

When there are 4 minutes left to bake, we will heat a little water in the microwave, half a cup, to create steam in the oven.

We will have to generate steam in the initial minutes, for this we can do it in 2 ways:

• Placing a metal tray with volcanic stones under the tray that we baked by pouring boiling water inside. In this case, the tray will be placed on the base of the oven, although if it is a small container it can be placed on one side of the stone/tray, always leaving space for the bread. (Caution: not all ovens allow us to place trays on their base. See the instruction manual)

• Placing a baking tray on top, remaining placed on our bread, where we will pour the boiling water (it is the most practical).

The tray that we place inside to pour the water must always be inserted 10 minutes before baking our bread.
Once we have everything ready, we put our bread in the oven in the lowest part. We will bake the fougasses two by two.
We slide the bread with the help of the shovel/board on the stone/iron... we pour the water on the upper or lower tray and close the door.

Bake for 5 minutes with steam at 240ºC. After this time we remove the upper / lower tray (where we pour the water) and close the door.

Lower the temperature to 230ºC and leave for 10-12 more minutes. It will have a slight golden color on the surface.
Remove and let cool on a wire rack .

Preservation: This bread is ideal to be eaten warm or on the same day that we have baked it, since it is made with yeast and is quite narrow, it has a shorter shelf life.