hey viewers this is my second attempt at making lepinja or
in some circles known as somun bread, perfect for stews, cevap, dip it into
something delicious, mop up some sauce. i have to admit, my first attempt
looked reasonable but i knew they really
didn’t hit the mark for soft yeasty
pillows of yumminess. hvala to the gospodja who finally put me on the right
track. i have canned the former recipe from chasing the mugaratz oops i mean
chasing the donkey and instead used another one which i found on you tube by
brigita husic which has over a million views. yep over a million and with that
many it is bound to be a winner. i shall translate it into english for you. lepinja za cevape kako ih ja pravim. ( lepinja for cevapcici and how i make them) even i myself being a
hrvatski illiterate was overjoyed by the fact i could actually read this by myself.
perhaps there is hope for me yet. (although having been in the homeland in 1990
i actually knew more than i thought and could get by, just ask mali sestra).
however, this fact has caused me some embarrassment viewers. true my hrvatski
is far from fluent even though i have heard it all my life. i blame this fact
solely on my parents for believing that english was the gold standard which i
suppose in those days it was. if i got a dollar for every time someone asked me
where i came from then i would have a ton of money, nah, make that a shitload
of money. but the truth is my mum came out to australia when she was 11 and my
dad was a teenager and they met in adelaide. for croats they spoke exemplary english
and were pretty liberal minded. i escaped the usual croatian boyfriend/go out
for a year/get engaged/have a fancy croatian wedding where you pin rosemary on
everyone and receive a fat wad of cash that went on a house deposit/one year
later be with child/ stay at home and make endless pots of goulash/ clean the
house until the only way you could enter it was with a pair of sunglasses.
nope that really never appealed to my tom boy inclinations
which incidentally were more about the fact that as a girl i already knew
things were not on an even playing field and i was having none of that. instead
i spent my teenage years riding horses and working at the racetrack which was
far more interesting than boys. i dodged the croatian suitors by refusing to
dance with them and crushing their souls…well maybe that is a slight
exaggeration (i actually do quite like dancing). at least one is happily
married to the woman of his dreams so i couldn’t have been that bad, lol. i then
got an education and spent half my life living in places other than adelaide. but
hey look at me now folks, i should get wife of the year with my return to the
kitchen and nothing like a new renovation to reinstate a passion for cleaning,
lol. and for all things hrvatski, i do identify with my culture in some
respects and really would prefer to have a second fluent language. but hey i
think i could probably teach myself if i stick to brigita’s videos, no english
there. i just lack confidence and feel anxious because people assume that i
already speak the lingo. well i guess this is the point where i admit or should
i say confess another childish crime. my mother affectionately known as lovie
is getting to know all my terrible secrets and unfortunately bubba (my dad’s
mum) is no longer with us so i can’t take my basket of lepinja over to her
house (which incidentally was in sisak) as a peace offering and make amends.
should i even be admitting to this? well i actually had to speak to some students about using the word poo and bum in class the other day so here it goes… kids just find those words laughable and i guess naughty. so now i don’t feel so bad and i have to give bubba credit, she never dobbed us in. i suppose we could have used a far more colourful vocabulary gleaned from listening to papa joe lose his shit over something in his shed. but instead we took turns in saying...moj brat i sestra svaki dan seru u gaće ( i think you might be able to work this out for yourselves with the clues i provided). man she didn’t even flinch, we thought it was funny but of course it was just plain terrible and there i have confessed. srum te bilo to me. we definitely would have got the shiba big time for that. but i am making up for it today and atoning for another sin by baking this lepinja and creating another batch of cevaps; some of which will be delivered to my sister (in iso) and to lovie just because she has exceeded her limits of home cooked meals for us.
what i like about this recipe is that it goes through a
triple rise process rather than one long one. it takes a couple of hours to
make which is mainly waiting time and only 10 mins to bake. i have included the
link for those who can speak the lingo and even if you don’t it is worthwhile
watching what she does and just follow along. in fact i highly recommend you do
that. watch the video first because her techniques are important.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3iu35sBPD0&ab_channel=ReceptiBrigitaHusic
ingredients
1 kg of OO flour
750ml lukewarm water
2 sachets of dry yeast
2 teaspoons of salt
50 ml of olive oil
1 teaspoon of sugar
another 50 ml of olive
oil
sesame or poppy seeds
method
1. place flour into a large mixing bowl
2. pour about half a cup of the lukewarm
water into another bowl, add yeast sachets, sugar and two tablespoons of flour
from the first bowl. whisk and leave to froth and bubble for 15 mins
3. make a well in the flour, add yeast
mixture plus 50 ml of oil. gradually add water and mix. the dough will be
sticky which is how it should be. follow the you tube video to watch brigita to
see how she prepares the dough. mix by hand and then cover bowl with plastic
and leave to double in size about 45 -60 mins
4. pour the other 50ml of oil into dough and
work dough with hands to aerate it
5. place dough onto floured board and using fingertips, knead very lightly and
shape into a log, cut in half and then cut halves into four pieces for 8 large
lepinjas or you can make smaller ones
6. using fingers, push dough into itself and
then pinch so it is closed and then pat bottom, place on board and repeat
process until all are done. cover with tea towel and let rises for 30 mins
7. place baking paper onto tray. take a ball
of dough and stretch and press with fingertips to make a round. using the back
edge of a knife, score the top, brush with water and sprinkle with seeds. cover
and let it rise again for 20 mins. Turn oven on while waiting for third
proofing.
8. make sure oven is on maximum temperature.
i have a function on my oven for baking, if not just be mindful a fan forced
oven will usually cook these more quickly. place on middle rack of oven and
cook for 8-10 mins until nicely browned. wrap in a tea towel. serve with cevaps
or a stew or however you desire.
9. i made 8 large lepinjas, which can be cut in half. next time i will make smaller ones. enjoy!
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