La Fouée de Touraine

A chewy, French pita. A surprise to the tastebuds.

Translated from the original French: "The fouées de Touraine may take diverse forms; it swells like a sandwich without bread. Just open it gently, while still hot, to bring the salted butter, rillettes, or a ratatouille of vegetables. Accompanied by a local preparation, the fouées can compete with pizza!"

Pronunciation: We say foo-AY. Might be foo-EE. You can call it whatever you want.

Yield: 5-6 fouées

Time: 3 1/2 to 4 hours start to finish

Ingredients

Levain/Starter

• 60 grams warm water

• 7-8 grams active dry yeast

• 14 grams honey

• 20 grams King Arthur all-purpose flour

Main Dough

• 350 grams KA bread flour

• 200 grams KA all-purpose flour

• 80 grams spelt or whole wheat flour (or substitute an additional 80 grams of all-purpose flour)

• 325 grams warm water (100-105 F) (50%)

• 9 grams sea salt

Method:

Levain:

1. To make the levain, combine the warm water, honey and yeast, then stir in the 20 grams of all-purpose flour.

2. Cover and let rise for one hour.

Main Dough

Assemble the dough:

1. Incorporate the remaining ingredients for the dough with the levain starting with the water then the flour & salt.

2. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

3. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface then knead until supple, about 5-10 minutes.

4. Place dough back into the work bowl, cover, then let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until about doubled in volume.

Shape the dough:

1. After the dough has doubled, divide into 5-6 boules/rounds.

1. Flatten the boules into a circle with the palm of your hand.

2. Gather up the edges back into a ball and set seam side down.

1. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

2. Roll out to 1/4” - 1/3” thick. Thin is good.

3. Place on parchment paper, cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

Baking:

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 during this final rest.

2. If cooking on a Baking Steel or stone, consider 450-500F.

3. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Notes:

• The original French recipe calls for 70 grams of rye. Other recipes have called for a mix of 35 grams rye flour + 35 grams wheat flour. Experiment!

• The original directions in French seem to say to pre-heat oven to 392F. 425 is a better temp to get them to brown and to puff up.