Rosemary and Kalamata Fougasse

Dough:

• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 cups water
  
• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 1 tspn salt

Fougasse Additions:

• 1 cup pitted brined kalamata olives, halved lengthwise
• 1 Tspn minced fresh rosemary

The recipe in '200 Fast and Easy Artisan Breads' says to use black olives from a can. I've found that canned olives resemble cardboard, so I purchased some kalamata olives that I could smell and feel at the olive stand in Safeway.

I used 2 cups of water because the bread flour seems to need more... usually I would use 1.5 cups for this dough. In the end, it was a bit too moist; a nice medium would have been 1.75 cups.

Mixed the dough, let it sit in a warm oven for 2 hours, mixed in the olives and rosemary, let it sit for 30 minutes, formed the fougasse and brushed with oil, let it sit for 30 minutes, place into a preheated oven at 400F with a few cups of water splashed in to create steam. Baked for 45 minutes or so.

The result is great... a brilliant combination of flavors, and another successful fougasse.