flipFouées Stuffed with Rillettes and Goat Cheese
Fouées Stuffed with Rillettes and Goat Cheese
Why this dish? The fouée—a small dough disk that puffs into a hollow ball in the wood oven of Touraine's troglodyte caves—perfectly embodies Calder's tinkering conviviality: you open it, fill it yourself with whatever's on the table, and devour it burning hot with your fingers.
A simple bread dough rolled into small disks that puff up instantly in the oven's high heat, forming hollow balls. Split while warm and stuffed with rillettes, semi-salted butter, or fresh goat cheese.
This is the favorite game of kids and grown-ups at my table! You slide your little disks into the hot oven, and pop—they swell up like balloons, all hollow inside. You grab them burning hot, split them open, and stuff them with whatever you like: my rillettes, a pat of butter, some fresh goat cheese. You eat ten without realizing it, laughing, fingers greasy. The best cooking is what you do with your hands.
- •Wheat flour — a pound (dough)
- •Sourdough or yeast — a little (leavening)
- •Warm water and salt — as needed (dough)
- •Rillettes, butter, fresh goat cheese — as desired (fillings)
Fouées Stuffed with Rillettes and Goat Cheese
A simple bread dough rolled into small disks that puff up instantly in the oven's high heat, forming hollow balls. Split while warm and stuffed with rillettes, semi-salted butter, or fresh goat cheese.
Why this dish? The fouée—a small dough disk that puffs into a hollow ball in the wood oven of Touraine's troglodyte caves—perfectly embodies Calder's tinkering conviviality: you open it, fill it yourself with whatever's on the table, and devour it burning hot with your fingers.
This is the favorite game of kids and grown-ups at my table! You slide your little disks into the hot oven, and pop—they swell up like balloons, all hollow inside. You grab them burning hot, split them open, and stuff them with whatever you like: my rillettes, a pat of butter, some fresh goat cheese. You eat ten without realizing it, laughing, fingers greasy. The best cooking is what you do with your hands.
Ingredients (period version)
- Wheat flour — a pound (dough)
- Sourdough or yeast — a little (leavening)
- Warm water and salt — as needed (dough)
- Rillettes, butter, fresh goat cheese — as desired (fillings)
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour (T65) — 500 g (dough)
- Baker's yeast — 10 g fresh (or 4 g dry) (leavening)
- Warm water — 300 ml (hydration)
- Salt — 10 g (seasoning)
- Olive oil — 1 tbsp (dough suppleness)
- Rillettes, semi-salted butter, fresh goat cheese — as desired (fillings)
Method
- Mix flour, yeast, salt, water, and oil; knead 10 minutes until a supple dough forms. Let rise 1 h 30 under a cloth.
- Preheat oven to maximum (250°C minimum) with a baking stone or heavy sheet inside.
- Divide dough into egg-sized balls, roll each into a thin 10-12 cm disk.
- Bake directly on the hot surface: in 3 to 5 minutes, the disks puff into hollow golden balls.
- Remove, split while warm, and immediately fill with rillettes, butter, or goat cheese. Devour at once.
How it was made : In the troglodyte caves of Touraine and Anjou, fouées were traditionally baked to test the bread oven's heat before sliding in the big loaves: these little puffed cakes were the baker's and children's snack, eaten piping hot on the spot.
The contemporary twist : A fouée buffet: everyone kneads and fills their own, like an edible sculpture workshop—Calder would have loved it.
Sources : Traditions boulangères de Touraine-Anjou · Curnonsky, La Touraine gourmande
Alexander Calder · Charactorium
