Herb Fougasse

A beautifully formed Provençal bread can be made plain with a topping of poppy and sesame seeds, or with a rosemary onion topping. Its a light and versatile bread that's a great accompaniment to soups or to mop up a gravy and its a fairly flat bread so can easily be stored away. The bread has a very light crust and can be cut into a number of other patterns. I used dry rosemary, chopped tomatoes and stewed onions to top, and kneaded some of the onion into the dough.

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour (I used 2 cups of white flour with 1 cup of wholewheat flour)
• 1 tbsp dry yeast
• 1 cup water, warm
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil, and a little more for brushing
• 1 tbsp dry rosemary
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 medium tomato, chopped into large, rough chunks

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar into the warm water, and leave aside to activate.
2. Add the activated yeast to the flour, mix in the salt and 2 tbsp of olive oil and make a soft dough.
3. Leave the dough aside in a warm place to rise and double in size. It should take an hour or so.
4. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the onions, stew them until they start to brown around the edges. Add the rosemary and take it off the heat.
5. Add half the onion-rosemary mixture to the dough and knead it into the dough. Add a sprinkling of flour if it seems a little too wet.
6. Roll the dough out into a thick rectangle, and take a knife or dough cutter and make a single incision down the middle of the rectangle. Leave at least an inch from the incision to the short edge of the rectangle. Make three more incisions on each side of the middle one, equally spaced, and an inch from both the long edge and the middle incision.
7. Pick the dough up and lightly set it down, to open up the incisions. Brush the top lightly with olive oil and add the remaining onion-rosemary mix and the tomatoes to the top. Leave aside in a warm place to proof, for at least an hour.
8. Once risen, place in a pre-heated oven at 240 degrees C/gas mark 8 for 15 minutes.
9. After 15 minutes, lower the heat to 180-190 degrees C/gas mark 6 and let it cook for another 15 minutes, for it to develop a light brown crust.
10. Let it cool before slicing. Serve it with a sweet relish or with garlic-parsely butter, to cut through the bitter onion and rosemary.