Laurent Kalkotour's Fougasse

Laurent Kalkotour's Fougasse
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Laurent Kalkotour, formerly of DB Bistro Moderne and chef behind the French-inspired menu at Atrium DUMBO, shares a recipe from his youth in Provence. "Les Treize is a tradition in the south of France where after the big dinner, we have 13 different desserts placed on the table at the same time. It is meant to represent Jesus and his 12 apostles. The desserts vary from region to region and family to family. Out of all 13, my favorite is one my mother made called Fougasse. It's a sweetened olive oil bread with a dash of orange blossom water. For me it was perfect, fruity and fragrant from the olive oil and orange water, but not overly sweet. It is more of a savory dessert."Photo Modified: Flickr/barbbarbbarb
Servings
8
servings
Ingredients
  • 250 gram flour
  • zest of one orange
  • 150 gram unsalted butter
  • zest of one lemon
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon quick yeast
  • 100 milliliter orange blossom water
  • 2 tablespoon milk
  • 100 gram sugar
Directions
  1. Warm a little milk in a pot and mix in the quick yeast. Put to the side. Cream 100g of butter with the sugar. Add the flour to the butter and sugar mixture, then the yeast, then the egg fully incorporating after each addition.Work the dough until it's smooth and elastic. Beat with awooden spoon to aerate it and then add 2 big spoonfuls of orange blossom water. Leave to restovernight in the bowl or at least 1.5 hours. You're looking for a dough that about doubles in size and is glossy and sticky with lots of tiny bubbles inside it.
  2. Once rested, knead it with a wooden spoon so it goes back to the original size and lay into a baking tray lined with parchment paper.The amount above will be enough for a medium size tray. With the remaining 50g of butter, dot the dough with small pieces and then shake some sugar on top. Pour 2 Tbsp of orange blossom water onto the dough and bake the bread for 25 min at 350° in the middle of the oven. Be careful that the bread does not brown too much.
  3. While the dough bakes, mix some more sugar with the rest of the orange blossom water to make a thick syrup. When the bread comes out of the oven, spread the syrup on the hot dough and then leave it to cool. Garnish with lemon and orange zest and serve when the syrup has dried to a thin crust.
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