This Olive Thyme Fougasse is a very fancy-looking and -sounding French Bread that is incredibly fun and flavorful. It was originally developed to test the heat of the oven each morning to know how long to bake the rest of the loaves.
A wonderful addition to a bread basket or for a potluck, dipped in soups or dips or topped and baked. You can knead for 15 minutes by hand if you don’t have a stand mixer (it’s kinda fun sometimes!) and you can just use a sharp knife if you don’t have a bench scraper to make the cuts.
Mini starter:
1/4 cups all purpose flour
3 tbsp water
A pinch of yeast
Mix well, cover, and leave at room temperature for 18-24 hours.
Final dough:
3 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup rye flour
1 1/4 cup water
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup pitted whole olives
Pinch of yeast
4 tbsp fresh chopped thyme leaves or 1 tbsp dry thyme
Combine all purpose flour, rye flour and water, and allow to hydrate for 15 minutes. Then add the mini starter, olive oil, salt and a pinch of yeast.
Mix on low for 5 minutes (or knead by hand), then on medium for 8 minutes (or 10-12 minutes by hand) until the gluten has developed. Add the olives and mix well, until they’re well incorporated.
Lightly oil the bowl and turn the dough so it’s well coated. Cover and ferment for an hour. Uncover, fold, recover and continue to ferment for another 2 hours.
Split the dough into two equal pieces and shape into rounds. Rest on a greased baking sheet for 2-3 hours.
Uncover and place rounds on floured parchment paper. Degas slightly and use a bench scraper or sharp knife to cut 5 lines in the dough, fanning out from the center, making sure to cut through but leave the top and bottom in tact so it stays together as a loaf and looks like a big leaf.
Bake at 470 for 20-25 minutes and enjoy warm or at room temperature.