A flat, crusty bread from Southern France is perfect as an appetizer or as an accompaniment to a soup or stew! Made into a scary pumpkin shape, this year our Fougasse is not only a lovely side dish but also a Halloween decoration!
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Why We Carve Pumpkins At Halloween?
Have you ever wondered why we carve pumpkins at Halloween? I haven’t up until recently when I decided to shape my fougasse into a pumpkin for this year’s Halloween celebrations! In short, the tradition comes “from an Irish myth about Stingy Jack, who tricked the Devil for his own monetary gain. When Jack died, God didn’t allow him into heaven, and the Devil didn’t let him into hell, so Jack was sentenced to roam the earth for eternity. In Ireland, people started to carve demonic faces out of turnips to frighten away Jack’s wandering soul. When Irish immigrants moved to the U.S., they began carving jack-o’-lanterns from pumpkins, as these were native to the region” (Why do we Carve Pumpkins for Halloween?, Britannica), and in season and ready to harvest just in time for Halloween.
What is Fougasse?
The Fougasse bread is a creation of Southern France, specifically from the Provence region, where it is typically served as a sharing starter. This bread is similar to Italian Focaccia, however, is distinguished by the shape resembling a sheath of wheat, or a leaf created by rolling the dough thin and then making slashes with a sharp razor. Whilst the dough can be made either by hand, we make it in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, as it can be sticky and difficult to knead.
Slashed open areas in the dough help the bread bake quickly making these loaves a crust lover’s delight because they maximize the surface area of the bread that gets crusty. However, using vegetables in the bread (in this case, pumpkin or butternut squash) makes the crust softer, similar to sandwich bread.
Making Your Own Pumpkin or Butternut Squash Puree
This bread works equally well with shop-bought pumpkin puree and a homemade one. You can also adapt this recipe by using butternut squash. Simply roast it and blitz it into a puree.
Cut your pumpkin or butternut squash into wedges. Scoop out the seeds. Score the flesh and rub it with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 40 minutes, until soft and golden. Scoop out the soft flesh from the skin with a spoon. Leave to cool down completely.
Place the pumpkin flesh into a food processor (we love Kenwood) and blend into a puree.
Method: How to Make Spooky Halloween Bread?
In a bowl of your stand mixer, mix the strong flour, yeast, salt, water, pumpkin puree and olive oil.
Place in your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment and knead for 8-10 minutes on medium speed. The dough will be quite sticky but should become smooth and elastic.
*** if you’re using food colouring to make the orange pumpkin and a green stalk, take a bit of the dough out towards the end of the kneading process and mix in the green food colouring. Add the orange food colouring to the main dough bowl, and knead until fully incorporated***
Shape a ball of dough and place it in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and leave to prove for 2 hours.
Once doubled in size, split your doughs in half and line two baking trays with baking parchment.
Shape pumpkins (or any other shape) by flattening the dough with a rolling pin, stretching the dough with your hands and using a sharp knife/ bread scorer. Attach the pumpkin stalk if you made one.
Place the trays in a warm spot for 30 minutes covered with a lightly oiled cling film.
Preheat the oven to 200° C Fan. Just before baking, make sure you stretch out any cuts you made for the eyes or mouth of the pumpkin using your fingers so that they don’t close completely whilst baking.
Bake your fougasses for 18-20 minutes until golden and crusty. Once baked, transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Other Halloween Recipes
Happy Halloween, everyone! If you’re looking to make a Halloween-inspired main, try our ‘Turn-into-a-Pumpkin-at-Midnight’ Risotto – Perfect Halloween Dinner. It’s vegan too! Or if you keep a Sourdough Starter, make a very spooky bread by using charcoal in your bread mix.
Other Bread Recipes
For other bread recipes, have a look at some of our simple step-by-step recipes below:
Recipe Card
Halloween Bread | Pumpkin Fougasse
Ingredients
- 200 g pumpkin puree
- 600 g strong white flour
- 7 g fast action yeast
- 260 g water
- 8 g salt
- 20 ml olive oil
- green and orange food colouring optional
Instructions
- In a bowl of your stand mixer, mix the strong flour, yeast, salt, water, pumpkin puree and olive oil.
- Place in your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment and knead for 8-10 minutes on medium speed. The dough will be quite sticky but should become smooth and elastic.
- *** if you're using food colouring to make the orange pumpkin and a green stalk, take a bit of the dough out towards the end of the kneading process and mix in the green food colouring. Add the orange food colouring to the main dough bowl, and knead until fully incorporated***
- Shape a ball of dough and place it in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and leave to prove for 2 hours.
- Once doubled in size, split your doughs in half and line two baking trays with baking parchment.
- Shape pumpkins (or any other shape) by flattening the dough with a rolling pin, stretching the dough with your hands and using a sharp knife/ bread scorer. Attach the pumpkin stalk if you made one.
- Place the trays in a warm spot for 30 minutes covered with a lightly oiled cling film.
- Preheat the oven to 200° C Fan. Just before baking, make sure you stretch out any cuts you made for the eyes or mouth of the pumpkin using your fingers so that they don't close completely whilst baking.
- Bake your fougasses for 18-20 minutes until golden and crusty. Once baked, transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
Shadi+Hasanzadenemati
This was amazing and such a treat! Thank you! Everyone in my family loved it.
Ieva
Thanks so much for letting us know!
Katherine
These breads are just the cutest, I mean spookiest!
Ieva
😀 😀 😀 I tried to make them as spooky as possible… Clearly, I failed… At least they won’t scare anyone too much! 🙂
Jen
This is so fun!!! I’m making it today. My kids will love it!
Ieva
Hope you enjoy them as bread as well as decorations! 🙂
Dannii
These are so cute! My kids are going to love making these.