If you didn't have anything spooky planned for your Halloween dinner yet, don't worry, I've got you covered! These spooky fougasses are so easy and very effective.
Fougasse is the French version of the Italian Focaccia. It's a flat bread which is traditionally shaped into a leaf, by cutting and stretching the dough slightly. But I'm going off the beaten track with this recipe! I have used this dough to craft some scary figures (and a pumpkin) to go with some tomato soup.
You can pretty much go any way you want with this. If you can imagine it, you can probably make it. I chose to do some fairly easy designs (ghosts) and some more difficult (Frankenstein!). I could imagine making a shape for Thanksgiving or Christmas, like a turkey, Christmas Trees, stars.. Well the possibilities are endless really. It's inexpensive to make and no fancy equipment needed. I used a recipe off a renowned Dutch blog on bread, which I translated into English. If you want to read the Dutch version, kindly click here. I hope you're inspired to create something yourself!
Recipe Monsterbreads (Spooky Fougasses)
For 6 fougasses
500 gr strong white bread flour
10 gr active dry yeast
10 gr salt
25 ml olive oil
300 ml water, room temperature
semolina flour to dust working surface with
rosemary, chilli powder or other herbs to top your bread with (optional)
1. Weigh your flour in a large bowl, adding the yeast on one side of the bowl, salt on the other. Make sure they do not come in direct contact or the yeast will die. Mix the dry ingredients together with a wooden spoon, or your hand.
2. While stirring with a wooden spoon, slowly add the water and olive oil to the flour mixture. When the dough starts to form a ball, cover it and leave it to rest for 15 minutes. After resting the dough, knead it for about 5 to 10 minutes (by hand) on a clean working surface. The dough is quite tough and a bit dry, don't add any water to it unless you still see dry flour.
3. When kneaded, form the dough into a ball, put it into a large oiled bowl covered with a damp kitchen cloth and leave to rise for about 45 minutes or until doubled in size. In the meanwhile, preheat the oven to 230C/450F.
4. Dust your working surface with semolina flour and place your risen dough on it, covering each side in semolina. Cut the ball into 6 even pieces. Roll each piece out into your preferred shape and cut a design into it. If your dough starts to stick to the surface, use some more semolina flour. If desired, sprinkle some herbs on top, and gently press them into the dough to make them stick. Place your fougasses on a baking tray lined with baking parchment (about 2 per baking tray) and leave to rise for 15 minutes. If you only have one baking tray like me, you can set the remaining fougasses aside on baking parchment. You can bake these consecutively. What I do is roll out 2 fougasses, and while those are rising, I roll out the next two. Bake the fougasses in the oven for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
Labels: Bread, Cheap, Easy, Focaccia, Fougasse, Halloween, Herbs, Semolina, Student-Friendly
