Double Garlic Fougasse

Yesterday Chris had to work late while I had the day off. Chris is always really great about having dinner ready when I get home from a long day at work, so I decided to make sure that dinner would be almost ready to go when he got in later than normal, and that the house would smell great too.

We had planned to have ravioli anyway, so I figured something bready and garlicky would go great with that. I decided to look in my Passion for Baking book since there are two sections on yeast breads with mouth watering recipes and pictures. When I saw this recipe for Double-Garlic Fougasse though, I knew I had the right thing.

Garlic powder, minced garlic and garlic infused olive oil combined with yeasty bread, parmesan cheese and italian herbs... yup, can't get much more garlicky than that. The recipe was also great because it only took about 3 hours of rising time and was pretty easy to mix up to boot. Granted, I had to go to the store for olive oil and garlic infused olive oil, but it was well worth it.

The house definitely smelled like I wanted it to when Chris got home from work too. We considered actually making ravioli to go with the bread, but in the end we simply slathered a little butter on the bread hot from the oven and called it dinner. :)



Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
5 tsps instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tsps salt
1/4 cup olive oil
4 to 5 cups bread flour
salt and pepper

1 tsps dried Italian seasoning
4 to 6 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 to 2 tsps garlic powder
1/2 cup garlic infused olive oil (you can sub extra virgin olive oil -- but the garlic flavor will be less pronounced)
1 cup small hunks of parm

In a mixer bowl, whisk water and yeast together and let stand 2 to 3 minutes to dissolve yeast. Briskly whisk in sugar, salt, oil, and most of the flour. Knead with dough hook on lowest speed of mixer 5 to 8 minutes adding more flour as necessary to form soft dough.

Remove dough hook from machine and spray dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover top with plastic wrap and let rise 45 to 50 minutes. Meanwhile assemble filling ingredients.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate. Pat out to a 12-inch round. Smear dough round with some of the salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, minced garlic, garlic powder, 2 to 4 tbsps of garlic oil, and cheese.

Roll up dough and let rest 5 minutes. Then roll dough flat again into 10 inch round and repeat seasoning/oil treatment.

Let dough reset 10 minutes and then roll to a 12 to 15 inch round or oval (don't worry if garlic and oil leak out at this point.)

Place dough on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Smear top with more salt, pepper, seasoning, garlic and oil. Make 3 deep cuts in dough going right through almost to baking sheet. Stretch out those gashes some-what to make 3 openings or ovals.

Cover pan loosely with plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375. Bake bread 30 to 45 minutes until golden brown and crisp on the outside. Let cool slightly and serve.