Fougasse is a bread traditionally associated with the Provence region of France, and it's a cousin to the Italian focaccia. Both breads are descended from a Roman bread that was baked directly on the hearth, which in Latin is called 'focus.' The Roman bread was called panis focacius, so it's easy to see the relationships, etymologically speaking. Apparently, fougasse was traditionally used to gauge the hearth temperature, which was determined based on how long it took to bake. Leave it to the French to make a very tasty bread out of a tester loaf.
This is definitely a bread that benefits from a baking or pizza stone in your oven. It needs that immediate heat from the hearth/stone to get proper oven spring. It's also a pretty wet dough, so you can expect it to be very sticky and it'll require a fold halfway through the fermentation. The only thing I changed from the original recipe was that I used kalamata olives rather than the niçoise olives, which would be the more Provencal of the two. You could also add some herbes de Provence or some anchovies, as well as goat cheese and dried fruit.
If you really want to impress your friends and family, make some fougasse. I made this last week and the first loaf was gone within ten minutes of it being cool enough to eat. Check out the gallery below, and the recipe is after the jump.
Gallery: Kalamata Fougasse
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