Fougasse is a traditional flat braided bread from the south of France. You can flavor a fougasse to your liking with olives, herbs or anchovies. We would like to share with you this simple but delicious suggestion: fougasse with green pepper, olives and rosemary.
This gluten- and lactose-free fougasse is made from rice flour. This flour is easily digestible, naturally gluten-free and easy to use. You can choose whole-grain, half-grain or white rice flour. The more whole wheat the flour is, the firmer the bread, but it can cause a bitter aftertaste. White rice flour, on the other hand, has a very neutral taste, but then again, it’s not enough to make a loaf with that alone (the bread would disintegrate). Therefore, for this recipe, we recommend mixing whole wheat rice flour with white rice flour.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon of dried baker’s yeast
- 5 cl + 10 cl lukewarm water (about 40 °C)
- 100 g whole wheat rice flour
- 50 g white rice flour
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
- ½ teaspoon dried green pepper flakes
- ¾ teaspoon of olive oil
- 10 black pitted olives
- a few rosemary sprigs
Preparation
- Mix the sugar, yeast and 5 cl lukewarm water in a bowl. Let the mixture rise in the bowl in a warm place until it becomes frothy and has doubled in volume.
- Meanwhile, mix the white rice flour, whole wheat rice flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the olive oil and green pepper (which you have previously ground in a mortar). Mix coarsely and add the contents to the yeast bowl.
- Pour in the 10 cl of lukewarm water, stirring well. The water should be completely absorbed by the dough. The dough should be nice and smooth and homogeneous and should run off your whisk like a ribbon.
- Spread the dough into an oval baking tray lined with baking paper. Let rise for about 1 hour over a moderate heat source (f.e. on a radiator in winter, or on a sunny windowsill in summer). The volume of the dough should double.
- Preheat the oven to 150°C. The dough is too wet to knead, but you can make dimples in it with your fingers. Spread the black olives on the fougasse and sprinkle with rosemary sprigs.
- Slide a baking tray filled with water into the oven. Place the fougasse in the oven and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes.
- Let the fougasse cool on a wire rack after you remove it from the oven.
Tip: the fougasse is at its best when served still lukewarm, accompanied by a salad or onions sautéed in olive oil.
Source:
book “Pains et brioches sans gluten” (Alice and Laure Laffont, Jean Pommier, Annie Rapaport), publisher La Plage.