Brioche Bread Fouace

Fouace is a brioche style French bread with orange blossom water and is a very old traditional bread that fills the house with a wonderful aroma as it bakes.

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Fouace is served very hot and, depending on the version, may be topped with white beans, rillettes, salted butter or goat's cheese. But, it is simply delicious mixed with dried fruit before baking as this version is, served hot, spread with butter and your favorite jam.

A type of brioche bread is fouace flavored with orange blossom water and is a very old traditional bread.

The word originally referred to the oven in which bread has been cooked for centuries, from the Latin word "focus" or hearth.

This bread is traditionally shaped into a wreath or an oval and originates from the Albi region, near Toulouse.

As the bread bakes slowly, it spreads out as it rises, giving a very distinctive shape.

Fouace is one of the oldest French breads and is popular throughout France. Every region has its own variation on the theme. Around Aveyron, for example, it is flavoured with orange flower water and studded with prunes or candied fruits.

Try these other tasty French breads that are so popular like the famous French Baguette, so much easier than you might think. Also, French Brioche Bread which I have provided an easy version, but just as delicious as more involved recipes. Socca is also the easiest and will remind you of other flat breads from other cuisines.

📖 Recipe

Brioche Bread Fouace

Judith Coates

Fouace is a brioche style French bread with orange blossom water and is a very old traditional bread that fills the house with a wonderful aroma as it bakes.

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Ingredients

• ▢ 450 gm strong bread flour
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 20 gm fast acting yeast
• ▢ 55 gm sugar
• ▢ grated zest and juice of 1 orange
• ▢ boiled water
• ▢ 1 tablespoon orange flower water
• ▢ 150 ml olive oil
• ▢ 2 medium eggs
• ▢ 50 g candied fruits chopped finely

Instructions

 

• Sift flour and salt into a bowl and stir in the yeast, sugar and orange zest
• Make orange juice up to 300 ml with hot water and orange flower water
• Mix in eggs and oil
• Add liquid to flour mixture and mix to a soft dough
• Turn out onto a floured surface
• Knead dough for 10 minutes until elastic
• Place in a lightly oiled bowl
• Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for up to 1½ hours or until doubled in size
• Turn out and knead dough for a few minutes until smooth
• Gently knead in candied fruits
• Cut in half and roll out one half into a 20cm circle
• Place the round dough onto a greasing baking sheet and make a number of cuts with a sharp knife, radiating from the center
• Pull the dough gently to open the cuts and then cover with cling film
• Leave in a warm place to rise for about 30 minutesRepeat with the remaining dough to make the second loafHeat the oven to 200°C (Gas 7)
• Bake for 20-30 minutes until risen and golden
• Either cool on a wire rack, or eat hot! (no need to wrap leftovers this way!)

Notes

Be Creative!

You can shape this bread before the final rise into any shape you wish, for example:

•  cut dough into equal size pieces and place in a pan that fits all of them snuggly to make small fruit brioche rolls or you can even fill muffin tins with the dough and reduce the baking time to 15-20 minutes to make brioche buns.
• After mixing in the fruit and cutting dough in half, shape the dough into long rolls long enough to fit into a small bread loaf pan, flatten out the dough to make a rectangular shape, then fold the dough by thirds length ways, one side folded over the middle, then the other side on top. Place into bread pan and bake 20-30 minutes.

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