This versatile dough can be used for both flatbreads or fougasse. Here, Chris will talk you through making both options.

Makes four fougasse or four flatbreads (or eight small ones)

The night before, feed your starter. You can use any starter, white, wholemeal, rye - recently I used a Khorasan starter which was great.

For the dough you can use any wholemeal flour but I especially like Khorasan for a nice yellow colour and the flavour, or einkorn which gives a very soft dough.

For the white flour use a bread flour, or a heritage white works well, but I would reduce the water to 530g if using heritage.

Ideally you want the final dough temperature to be 25 - 27^oC as this will give you the best yeast activity. To achieve this, use the following equation:

(Final dough temp x 2) - Flour temp = water temp e.g (27 x 2) - 15 = 39

Weigh all ingredients into a bowl, combine and knead for 10 minutes until the gluten has developed well.

Place the dough back in the bowl, cover and prove for 1 hour in a warm place.

Now fold the dough. To do this, imagine 4 sides then fold the right side to the left, left to right, top to bottom, bottom to top. You should be left with a tighter ball in the middle of the bowl.

Prove for another hour then place into the fridge overnight.

The next day tip your dough out on to a well-floured worktop and cut into 4 equal pieces.

For the fougasse take each piece of dough and place it on some floured parchment and sprinkle a little flour on top. Use a dough scraper or pizza roller and cut a leaf pattern into the dough and stretch it out. 

Bake at 230-250C for 10-15 minutes.

For the flatbread either make four large ones or cut the pieces in half for eight smaller flatbreads. Use a rolling pin and a lot of flour to roll them out so they are only a few millimetres thick. Bake on a pre-heated baking stone at 250C or in a pizza oven. The flatbreads are cooked once they puff or have a light golden colour. You can brush them with garlic butter or olive oil once out of the oven.