Fougasse with bacon and Comté

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 2 fougasses, you will need:

• 1 500 g flour
• 2 30 g rye flour
• 3 20 g yeast
• 4 50 ml olive oil
• 5 9 g salt
• 6 250 ml water
• 7 200 g small pieces of bacon
• 8 150 g Comté cheese
• 9 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Total weight: 1,225 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
35 min.	2 hours	35 min.	3 hours 9 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Lightly fry 200 g small pieces of bacon, in 1 tablespoon olive oil. They should not be too brown because they will be cooked again in the oven. Leave to cool.
2	In the bowl of a mixer pour: 250 ml water (warm), 9 g salt, 50 ml olive oil, then 30 g rye flour and 500 g flour, and finally 20 g yeast. Knead for 6 minutes on low speed. Note: For the best way to knead, see: A few tips for effective kneading at home.
3	Bring dough together into a ball, cover with a damp tea-towel, and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in volume (about 1 hour).
4	Then cut dough into 2 lumps of same weight, roll each one into a ball. Roll out one ball into a large rectangle.
5	Divide ¼ of the bacon over half the rectangle.
6	Then cover with grated Comté.
7	Make 3 slits with a sharp knife or dough cutter on the other half.
8	With a brush, moisten the dough all around bacon so that it sticks well.
9	Then fold dough over on itself.
10	And press well all round edges to stick. Roll again gently to flatten.
11	Add another ¼ of the bacon on top, and sprinkle again with grated Comté.
12	Place fougasse on baking sheet, cover with a plastic sheet. Do the same thing with the remaining dough, and leave in a warm place to rise for one hour. Preheat the oven to 240°C or 464°F.
13	Put in the oven for approximately 30 minutes, until fougasse is golden brown. Note: As when baking any bread, you should ensure that the oven is filled with steam for the first 15 minutes of baking. This page shows you how; it really is the secret of golden-brown, crusty loaves..

Remarks

Quantities of bacon and cheese are just suggestions, do not hesitate to adapt to your taste. Likewise for a more "Provençal" flavour, you can add some halved olives to bacon and Comté.
A fougasse straight from the oven, and cut into small cubes, makes an excellent aperitif.
If you plan to eat it later, I advise you to remove it from the oven as soon as barely cooked, and to bake it again for a few minutes just before serving: it's much better warm.

---