Enter to win a copy of Provence: The Cookbook: Recipes from the French Mediterranean by Caroline Rimbert Craig in our giveaway (two copies US, one copy worldwide provided by Eat Your Books). Provence is currently a Kindle cookbook deal!

Caroline Rimbert Craig hails from generations of fruit farmers in Provence, where her great grandfather co-founded the wine cooperative in her family's native village, Mormoiron. She has an instinctive approach to Provençal ingredients and flavors, inherited from generations of cooks. Caroline is co-author of The Little Book of Lunch, The Cornershop Cookbook, and The Little Book of Brunch and she writes for the Guardian newspaper.

In Provence The Cookbook, she shares recipes for cooks who want to recreate the flavors of the Meditteranean at home. Provence is the fruit and vegetable garden of France and draws on Mediterranean, Levantine, and North African cuisine. The Provençal style of cooking isn't haute cuisine, for which France is famous, but simply relies on preserving the taste and texture of seasonal, fresh ingredients like tomatoes, garlic, saffron, peppers, anchovies, olives, olive oil, and wild herbs. So it makes sense that the cookbook is organized seasonally. Recipes such as Blossom honey and almond cake, Tarte de blettes (chard tart), Fennel in white wine, and Baguette pizzas await us along with stunning photography.

Special thanks to the publisher for providing the fougasse recipe below for our members to try now. Please note two additional online recipes linked as well.

Olive and rosemary fougasse (Serves 4)
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Many traditional Provençal recipes, such as this one for fougasse, a bread enriched with olive oil, say to use Eau de source, untreated water from a local spring. I once took joy in following such instructions to the letter, dutifully cycling to a parcel we call Canebiers and collecting water from the source there to see if it made a difference. I cannot be sure if it did but I enjoyed the whimsy.

Like a Pompe à l'huile or Couronne des Rois, fougasse is one for the weekend, for the kind of day you fancy spending at home baking something. If I’ve been invited round somewhere for supper and I have the time, I love to bring one of these for the apéro. Sun-dried or halved cherry tomatoes, thyme or even cooked lardons and grated cheese make nice alternative toppings.

For the starter

  • 20g fresh yeast (or 7g dried yeast)
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 50g strong white bread flour
  • 50ml tepid water

For the fougasse

  • 300g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 125ml tepid water
  • ⅔ tsp salt
  • 50ml olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
  • A handful of unpitted green or black olives
  • 3 sprigs of rosemary
  • 1-2 tsp salt flakes
  • 1 tbsp oregano

First, activate the yeast: mix the starter ingredients together in a bowl (crumble the fresh yeast, if using), then cover with cling film. Set aside on the counter for an hour, until the dough has increased in size and bubbles are visible on its surface. Your starter is ready.

Begin the fougasse: sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add the tepid water, prepared starter, salt and olive oil. Mix well, then cover and set aside for 5 minutes. Transfer the dough to a clean, dry, lightly floured surface and begin to knead. Knead for 15 minutes until a stretchy, springy dough has formed, then shape into a ball and place back in the mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film and place in a warm, draught-free spot to rise.
Once the dough has doubled in size, usually after 2-3 hours depending on the ambient temperature, knock back and knead once more briefly. Sprinkle flour over a baking tray and sit the dough on it. Roll into an oval shape, 2cm thick, then slice diagonal slits through the dough in a wheat pattern. Enlarge the holes using your fingers. Cover the fougasse with cling film or a damp tea towel and leave to rise again in a warm place for 1-2 hours. Towards the end of this prove, preheat the oven to 240C.

Remove the cling film or tea towel and lightly press olives into the surface of the dough. Pick the rosemary leaves off the sprigs and again lightly press into the dough. Sprinkle over the salt flakes, oregano and a little drizzle of olive oil.

Bake the fougasse for 15-20 minutes. It will not go darker than a pale golden brown, but check it is cooked by tapping the base and listening for a hollow sound. Fougasse is best eaten within two days.

There are two additional recipes online that you may try:

Thanks to the publisher for providing two copies of the above-referenced title in our giveaway open to EYB Members in the US. One of the entry options is to answer the following question in the comments section of this blog post.

Which recipe in the index would you try first?

Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won’t be counted. For more information on this process, please see our step-by-step help post and this forum post. Once you log in and enter your member name you will be directed to the next entry option – the blog comment. After that, there are additional options that you can complete for more entries. Be sure to check your spam filters to receive our email notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at midnight on September 3rd, 2020.

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