Bonjour de France! Introductions Discuss Bonjour de France! in the Good Background Information forums; Stu, Thanks for taking the time to post the photos. Wonderful oven and a trick piece of gear for getting ...

[CanuckJim]

Stu,

Thanks for taking the time to post the photos. Wonderful oven and a trick piece of gear for getting the fouee onto the hearth (sorry, can't find the appropriate accents here). Any chance we could get a recipe for the dough? I'd certainly be interested.

I'm sure you'll find all the help you need here to build your own oven, but it looks like you have a ready made source for some materials not available in North America.

Jim

[DrakeRemoray]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting those pictures! I can taste them now!

[Archena]

Originally Posted by Le Chant

That oven's pretty much a standard sort of size around these parts. They're usually tagged onto some part of the house (usually the gable end) and can form a whole other room where the baking for the family was traditionally carried out. Some of these things are hundreds of years old. My friend up the lane from me has one that we intend to renovate for him together. From there I'll be getting ideas on how they're constructed! I'll post a few exterior shots later if you're interested?

I'd love to see them. Thanks!

[Le Chant]

As far as the dough recipe goes - I'll try to get one to share with you. The dough pieces are bought like that from a favourite boulanger in a small ville called Noyant, not too far from me.

The 'trick' piece of kit used is indeed a thin piece of stainless steel plate.

The fouée are indeed pretty tasty, especially when piping hot with a cold filling! That oven of Gérards is in the region of 200 years old by the way, and still being used for special occasions like Easter, weddings, family gatherings etc.

[Le Chant]

Hi guys,

sorry not to have posted in a while. Life.

Well, I finally got around to building my oven just last week. Plans changed somewhat due to the availability of materials, needs of the family/guests and of course, time, space and money!

Still, I'm on the final furlong now. The hearth's complete. The voute (vault, or dome) is done, having raked out the sand just a couple of hours ago. So, I'm now preparing to render the outside of the voute with béton refractaire. I'll be applying around 3-5cms all over, after which a thin layer of 'seperation' is applied to stop the mortar I apply on the outside (called enduit) affecting the firebricks. This will be done using simple sheets of rockwool attached using chicken wire. Then a layer of aluminium sheeting, again to seperate the final coating of enduit (or plaster finish) from the rest in order to avoid cracking of the shell (or coque). I'll post a couple of pics when I upload them if that's ok?

For those of you who asked for a recipe for fouée.

Look Here. It's in French I'm afraid. It's easy enough to get the gist of though.

Bon appetite!

[Archena]

Regional Food Australia

If you scroll down you'll find a pop-up link for a recipe in English - not the same one but the instructions are in English which will probably help. They use the name 'Fougasse' or 'fouacés' but it's the same thing. Evidently there are several names for it.

Ich kann nur etwas Deutsch...

[Le Chant]

Sorry Archena, but fougasse or fouaces are a different thing entirely. Both of those are flavoured breads, usually with olives or sun dried tomatoes etc. The fouée from the Anjou region is used as a pocket, much like a pita bread, and filled with different foodstuffs. The fougasse or fouaces, or for that matter foccacia are indeed Italian in origin, and are widespread in the south of France, notably the Languedoc and Provence regions.

Pedant? Moi?

[Archena]

<shrugs> Ah well...

Es ist schwere eine anderen Sprache zu lesen.

[Le Chant]

Well, last night was the realisation of a three year ambition for me. I cooked the first fouée here at Le Chant in a bread oven since the original oven was demolished in the 1950's!

Admittedly, I bought the dough from our boulanger friend in a 2kg lump, and we cut, rolled and baked it ourselves. We fed a group of happy guests with 24 fouée and 4 pizzas. each and everyone of them said what a magical evening it was and how they'd never experienced cooking like it before. In a good way, I may add!

Here's a few pics of the evening.

[mfiore]

Looks fabulous! Thanks for sharing!

Congratulations.

Equally important, what wine are you drinking there? (you are, afterall, in the Loire Valley!)