Fouée et Fouace de Touraine

Ingredients

• For the fouée dough
• 500 g plain flour
• 320 ml water, slightly warm; a wetter dough puffs more reliably
• 10 g salt
• 7 g dried yeast
• Classic fouée fillings (shared pots at table)
• 200 g rillettes de Tours, at room temperature
• 200 g Sainte-Maure de Touraine goat cheese, warmed until it softens against the hot bread
• 300 g mogettes (dried white beans), cooked and finished in cream
• 60 g salted butter
• For the fouace (enriched dough)
• 500 g plain flour
• 150 g unsalted butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp orange flower water, the traditional Tourangelle distinction; per 500 g flour
• 7 g dried yeast
• 8 g salt
• 50 g sugar

Method

1. 1
   FOUÉE — Build the lean dough. Combine the flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Add the water gradually, working the mass until a cohesive, slightly tacky dough forms. Knead until smooth and elastic. Cover and prove until doubled in volume. The dough is ready when a finger pressed into the surface leaves an impression that springs back slowly.
2. 2
   Divide the proved dough into eight equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll each into a disc 12–15 cm in diameter and no more than 1 cm thick. Thicker discs will not form a pocket. Cover the shaped discs and rest for 15 minutes; they should feel soft and slightly puffy to the touch.
3. 3
   Place a pizza stone on the highest shelf of the oven and heat at maximum temperature (250°C or above) for a full hour before baking. In a wood-fired oven, the target is 300–350°C. This step is where the fouée lives or dies: without extreme ambient heat the discs will not generate the internal steam necessary to puff into a hollow pocket, and the result will be flat, leathery bread.
4. 4
   Slide the discs onto the stone in batches. Bake for 3–4 minutes in a wood oven, or 4–5 minutes at 250°C. Watch for the dramatic, balloon-like puff: the entire disc will inflate into a hollow sphere with a lightly charred, blistered exterior. Remove as soon as full inflation is achieved and the surface shows colour.
5. 5
   Split each fouée open immediately along its equator. Delay causes it to deflate and go leathery. The interior should release a rush of steam; the crumb will be soft and yielding while the crust remains crisp. Fill at once from the shared pots of rillettes, goat cheese, mogettes, or salted butter and carry to the table.
6. 6
   FOUACE — Build the enriched dough. Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Add the eggs and orange flower water, then incorporate the softened butter progressively, as for a brioche. Knead until the dough is smooth, supple, and pulls cleanly from the bowl. Prove until doubled. The dough is ready when it feels pillowy and springs back gently under pressure.
7. 7
   Shape the proved fouace dough into a crown or star form on a lined baking sheet. Prove again until visibly swollen and soft. Bake at 180°C until deep golden. The crust should sound hollow when tapped on the base. Serve at breakfast or goûter with butter and jam.