This delicious French bread is part of a Christmas tradition of 13 desserts in Provence, and it tastes like my idea of the perfect donut. It’s airy and subtly sweet with citrus and anise aromatics. Pompe à l’huile is actually a sort of brioche-fougasse hybrid that dates back to at least the 1600s. Pompe (French: pump) refers to a pump of olive oil, and this bread traditionally doesn’t have butter or eggs in it.
The cuts made in the dough before the final proof make it a lovely pull-apart dessert or breakfast bread to share while warm, though it also keeps well wrapped in plastic and softened in the microwave for 10-15 seconds just before eating.
Tender crumb with flecks of orange zest
Pompe à l’huile can be plain, allowing the fruity flavors of a good olive oil to come through, or as in the recipe below, flavored with orange blossom water, orange zest and juice, and ground anise. The final sprinkling of powdered sugar on the bread is optional.
Mixing the zest, ground anise, oil, water, orange blossom water, sugar, and salt
Leavening and Olive Oils
I made yeast and sourdough versions of this recipe, testing each leavening type a couple of times to iron out measurements and methods. Please keep in mind that your kitchen temperatures, and yeast or starter liveliness may make your rise times different from mine. See the note on temperature below, and look to the gallery following the recipe for before and after photos that show target fermentation and dough expansion.
The recipes I studied used a yeast poolish, like this Saveur recipe, or they used a combination of instant yeast and stiff sourdough starter, presumably for flavoring, and perhaps for a fermentation boost, like this recipe video from Ecole Internationale de Boulangerie. I learned about the history of this bread from baking-history.com and that recipe also used instant yeast and a stiff starter.
1 1/2 hour to reach this fully proofed state for the instant yeast version
My own instant yeast version doesn’t have a preferment and actually uses a lot of yeast, yet I found the fermentation to be slow enough to develop good flavors and gluten strength in the dough. Initially, I made this dough with a mix of a light olive oil and an extra virgin olive oil with a very high polyphenol level (dark green and bite-y in flavor, antioxidant properties). That dough’s fermentation was comparable in length to what I would expect from sourdough, with more than 7 hours at room temperature. I did a little science reading to investigate this, and I suspect that the polyphenols slowed the fermentation. This “antioxidant” bread was quite delicious, but for a second test bake, I used only light olive oil to get a faster rising time, a smidge longer than a typical yeast leavened challah, which has both oil and eggs.
First batch with potent olive oil, quite delicious
Based on those experiences, I built a very large stiff levain for the sourdough version of this recipe. 250g firm sourdough starter for only 350g flour. Note that if you look closely at my math, there is 10 grams more total flour in the sourdough version of this recipe. This was to make the dough have a similar feel to the yeast version. Baking involves both calculations and sensory adjustments. The sourdough breads came out less sweet, but delicious nonetheless.
I started my first test batch in the early afternoon and needed to refrigerate it overnight when it wasn’t ready at a reasonable time. This resulted in increased acidity in the dough and minimal Maillard reaction. For the second batch, I grew the levain overnight, mixed the dough in the morning, and was able to bake on the same day. That faster sourdough process indeed resulted in a less sour bread, but with the scrumptious added flavors from lacto fermentation.
Sourdough version
I give instructions on how to build a stiff levain in the recipe below. However, you can arrive at the 250g levain in a different manner if you prefer. To not recalculate the water and flour amounts of the recipe, aim to have 160g flour and 90g water in your final build, about 56% hydration. If you want to experiment and use 250g of a typical 100% hydration starter, simply use 375g flour (500-125) and 45g water (170-125) in the final dough. I plan to try this some day and report on how it turns out.
Temperature
Both of my sourdough test bakes began fermenting at warm temperatures, in the low 80s, on the Raisenne in one case and in the oven with the light on in the other case. After hearing reports from a few bakers that their sourdough doughs did not rise at all, despite their use of lively starter, I would urge anyone making sourdough version of the recipe to keep the dough warm at least until the fermentation takes off. As I mentioned above, I did retard one of the sourdough doughs, but well after it had started expanding.
Shape and Baking
Based on my research, pompe à l’huile usually have four or six cuts. I found that a metal spatula worked perfectly for cutting the dough, but in many videos, people used a wooden tool, or when the rounds are large, their bench knife.
Also, some bakers make a circle in the center of the dough with a small glass as in this video from ProvenceTV.fr. The dough is proofed on round pizza pans covered in aluminum foil in that video, but I used one large baking sheet with parchment paper. With my final batch of sourdough leavened pompe à l’huile dough, I actually decided to explore some different shapes.
“Donuts” cut out from the rolled out dough with a pint glass, and a braid made with scraps.
Substitutions
The recipe below lists “the zest of a medium orange,” but if you have mandarins or tangerines, that’s fine too. I used two mandarins for each batch of dough. Also, if you don’t have orange blossom water, you can use additional fresh orange juice or 2-3 drops of orange extract in a tablespoon of water.
My ground anise was milled fresh in my Mockmill. Using whole anise seeds or skipping the anise are also options.
Pompe à l’huile (Olive oil brioche)
Pompe à l’huile is a traditional Christmas dessert from Provence, France. It’s an olive oil bread that’s subtly sweet, very soft, and tantalizingly aromatic with orange and anise. The bread is made in a pull-apart style that’s perfect for sharing and savoring warm from the oven.
Ingredients
- 170g water (2/3 cup + 1 Tbsp)
- 100g sugar (½ cup)
- 12g orange blossom water (1 Tbsp)
- 9g salt (1½ tsp)
- 3g ground anise (1 tsp)
- Zest from 1 orange
- 36g orange juice (3 Tbsp)
- 120g olive oil (½ cup + 1 Tbsp)
- 500g bread flour (3¾ cups)
- 7g instant dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp / 1 packet)
Yeast Version
Sourdough Version
- 140g bread or all purpose flour
- 70g water
- 40g starter, 100% hydration
Stiff Levain (250g, 56% hydration)
- 80g water (1/3 cup)
- 100g sugar (½ cup)
- 12g orange blossom water (1 Tbsp)
- 9g salt (1½ tsp)
- 3g ground anise (1 tsp)
- Zest from 1 orange
- 36g orange juice (3 Tbsp)
- 120g olive oil (½ cup + 1 Tbsp)
- 350g bread flour (2 2/3 cups)
- 250g stiff levain from above, doubled or tripled in size
Final Dough
- 1 Tbsp olive oil to brush on the breads when hot from the oven
- 2 Tbsp powdered sugar to sprinkle on the breads once cooled
Optional
Instructions
- Check out the photo gallery below the recipe to see how the dough looks at each step.
- For the sourdough version
- The night before you plan to bake, mix a 56% hydration sourdough starter weighing 250g. Knead it on the counter for 1-2 minutes, and then place it in a jar with room for tripling. Cover and leave it somewhere warm. This stiff starter can be created from a single feed of 40g 100% hydration starter, 140g bread flour, and 70g water.
- Optional for the yeast version
- Just before mixing your dough, put a portion of the recipe’s water in a small bowl with the yeast and a pinch of sugar. Let the yeast dissolve and foam up.
- Mixing
- In a medium bowl (ideally with a pouring spout), measure out the water, sugar, orange blossom water, salt, and ground anise.
- While the sugar and salt begin dissolving, zest and juice the orange, straining out seeds and pulp.
- Stir a bit and then add the oil.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, briefly whisk your flour and instant yeast – OR – add the stiff starter in chunks to your flour. If you chose to proof your yeast, you can simply pour the mixture over the flour.
- Add the orange mixture to your stand mixer bowl and begin mixing using the dough hook attachment.
- Mix 5-8 minutes, initially on low speed and then low-med. Pause once early on to scrape down the sides of the bowl. The dough should be smooth and only slightly sticky to the touch toward the end of mixing.
- If you don’t have a stand mixer, mix by hand or with a spatula, and then slap and fold the dough for gluten development. Videos of this technique can be found here.
- First Rise
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place (ideally at temps in the low 80s) until about doubled. This was 3 1/2 hours with instant yeast, and 8 hours with sourdough.
- Shaping
- Scrape the dough onto your countertop. There’s no need to flour or oil it. Divide the dough in two pieces and roll them into balls.
- Cover the dough balls with a large piece of plastic wrap (you’ll reuse this) and let them rest for about 20 minutes.
- Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper. You can also prepare two parchment squares and bake the breads one at a time on a smaller baking sheet.
- Using a rolling pin, roll the dough balls into circles about 8 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick.
- Transfer the circles to the parchment paper, and make cuts in the dough as if it were pie but without reaching the center or the edges. Open the cuts a bit with your tool (spatula) or your fingers.
- Final Proof
- Cover the dough with your sheet of plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until puffy, almost twice as tall. This was 1 1/2 hours for instant yeast, and 4 hours for sourdough.
- Baking
- Preheat your oven to 400°F with a shelf in the center position.
- Bake the pompe à l’huile for 16-18 minutes or until the internal temp is over 200°F. If your fermentation times were long, the color of the breads may be lighter despite the interior being cooked through.
- Lightly brush the breads with olive oil to help them stay soft longer.
- Let the pompe à l’huile cool on a rack for about 20 minutes, then sprinkle powdered sugar on them if desired.
- The breads can be wrapped for storage, and softened through reheating in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.
Both Recipes
6.4.5
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About the author
Melissa Johnson: Passionate bread baker, inspired by the science and art of sourdough.
