Fougasse aux Olives

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white bread flour, T65 if you have it
• 10 g fine salt
• 7 g dried yeast or 18 g fresh yeast
• 330 ml warm water
• 50 ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for finishing
• 150 g black olives, stoned and roughly chopped
• 2 tsp herbes de Provence
• 1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
• flaky sea salt, to finish
• semolina, for dusting the tray

Before you cook

• Stir the yeast into the warm water and leave it for 10 minutes until cloudy.
• Stone and roughly chop the olives, then pat them dry on kitchen paper.
• Crush the fennel seeds lightly in a mortar.
• Dust two baking trays with semolina.

Steps

1. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
2. Pour in the yeasted water and the 50 ml olive oil and bring the dough together with your hand.
3. Knead on a lightly oiled surface for 10 minutes, until the dough is soft, slack and elastic, resisting the urge to add flour.
4. Flatten the dough and scatter over the olives, herbes de Provence and fennel seeds.
5. Fold the dough over on itself several times until the olives are evenly spread through it.
6. Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover, and leave to rise for 90 minutes, until doubled.
7. Turn the dough out gently onto a floured surface without knocking out the gas.
8. Divide it into two pieces and pat each into a rough triangle about 1.5 cm thick.
9. Lift each triangle onto a semolina-dusted tray.
10. Cut one long slash down the centre of each with a sharp knife, cutting all the way through to the tray.
11. Cut three shorter angled slashes on each side of the centre line, again cutting right through.
12. Pull the dough apart with your fingers to open the cuts wide, since they close as the bread proves.
13. Cover loosely and prove for 40 minutes, until puffy.
14. Heat the oven to 220C fan and put an empty roasting tin on the oven floor.
15. Brush the fougasses with olive oil and scatter over flaky sea salt.
16. Slide the trays into the oven and pour a cup of hot water into the roasting tin to make steam.
17. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes, until the crust is golden and the cut edges are crisp.
18. Brush with a little more olive oil straight from the oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes before tearing apart.