Olive Ladder Bread - Fougasse (Bd) Recipe

Recipe Ingredients

2 1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp dry yeast
6 cup unbleached all purpose flour -- (6, to 7)
2 tbsp olive oil plus extra for oiling sur, faces
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup pitted and chopped black olives (ny, ons or
1 kalamata)
1/4 cup buckwheat flour

Recipe by: BAKER'S DOZEN SHOW #BD1A29 You will need a large bread
bowl, four 10- by 15- inch or larger baking sheets that will fit in
pairs side-by-side in your oven, a sharp knife or razor blade, and a
pastry brush. Place water in a large bowl, sprinkle on yeast, then
stir in 2 1/2 cups of the all purpose flour. Stir 100 times in the
same direction (one minute) to develop the gluten, then leave this
sponge covered with plastic wrap for 30 minutes or up to two hours.
Stir in olive oil, salt, olives, and buckwheat flour. Mix in
remaining flour, a cup at a time, stirring always in the same
direction, until dough becomes too stiff to stir. Turn dough out onto
a well floured working surface. Using floured hands, knead gently
until the dough has an even consistency (apart from the olives), then
knead 5 minutes longer. Clean bread bowl, oil it lightly, place dough
in the bowl, then cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 2 to 3 hours.
It will have almost doubled in volume. Oil two 10 by 15 inch (or
larger) baking sheets. Flatten dough down gently with your hands,
then turn out onto floured working surface. Cut dough in half, return
half to the bread bowl and cover. Divide remaining half in two. Knead
each half into a ball and then flatten gently with the palm of your
hand. Let stand five minutes to rest. Working with each piece in
turn, flatten out with your palms into a rectangle or oval about 10
inches long and 5 to 6 inches wide. It will be about 1/2 to 3/4 inch
thick. Transfer each to a lightly oiled baking sheet at least 14
inches long. Let loaves rise for 20 to 30 minutes, covered with a
damp towel or plastic wrap. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and set rack
at the center of the oven or just above. (If your baking sheets do
not fit side-by-side on one rack, place two racks in oven, one just
above the center and one just below. One bread can go on each rack;
about halfway through baking (after 10 to 12 minutes), switch the
two around.) Just before placing in the oven, use a sharp knife or
razor blade to make cuts through the breads: Starting two inches from
the top and about an inch from the side, cut across the bread to
within an inch of the other side. Make two more cuts, parallel to
the first, at about 2 inch intervals (the cuts should go all the way
through the dough). The dough will separate at each cut, so that the
bread looks like a kind of fat-runged ladder; you can pull dough
apart even more if you wish and if your baking sheets are long
enough, by pulling gently on each end of the breads to make the slits
gape more. Brush each loaf lightly with olive oil all over, place in
the oven, and bake for 20 minutes. Breads will be golden when done.
Once first two loaves are in the oven, oil two more baking sheets,
then flatten remaining dough, divide into two, and repeat steps
required to form loaves. Breads should almost have finished rising by
the time the first batch comes out of the oven. Yield: 4 loaves
Jackie Bordelon <jbord@premier.net>

Servings: 1

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