I am running a hard race at the moment with my blogging as I still have not caught up from when we were overseas. I seem to be chasing my tail and moving papers around my desk. I still have to finish our blog of our holiday – the last two days have not been written up and the photographs have not yet been transferred to my computer. I have left my sourdough starter in the freezer as I have a few bread recipes to try that do not use sourdough. My weekends have been full and I must admit that instead of getting into my kitchen every day for my blog, I have been watching Master Chef Australia. We are only watching season 3 now so please, no spoilers! I am looking forward to our annual shut down in December as by then I should have caught up with everything and I can dedicate loads of time to my kitchen. I needed to bake bread for a recipe and I decided to try one of Dan Lepard’s recipes as I have read across the blogs that they really work. I did not have time to waste and when we got home on Saturday night I got the ingredients together. What I really like about this Zopako bread is that it takes no effort to make. There is very little kneading involved and I am sure that I can adapt this to try with my sourdough starter. It has a deliciously hard crust and dipped into a bit of bisque, made the perfect end to our dinner last night.
Zopako Bread
Ingredients
- 175 mls warm water
- 0.625 mls instant dried yeast
- 288 g 00 flour, plus extra for shaping
- 5 mls fine salt
Method
- Pour the water into a large bowl and stir in the yeast
- Add the flour and salt
- Mix to a firm dough, then knead lightly for 10 seconds, until evenly mixed
- Cover the bowl with cling film and leave at room temperature for 12 hours, until it has doubled in volume; if not, leave until it does
- Shape the dough into a stick about 15cm long with tapered ends
- Lay diagonally on a tray lined with a silpat or baking paper
- Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave to prove for 30 minutes
- Uncover and dust liberally with flour
- Press a rolling pin firmly down the centre, so that you almost split the loaf in two, leaving it joined only by a membrane of dough right down the middle
- Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave to prove for 30 minutes
- Preheat the oven to 240° Celsius
- Bake for 20 minutes, along with a small tray of boiling water on the lowest shelf to make the oven slightly steamy Reduce the heat to 200° Celsius and bake for 20 minutes, until crisp
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
What I blogged:
-
- one year ago – The Jolly Cookathon
- two years ago – Something Sweet Challenge
- three years ago – Milk Tart
What a beautiful bread. I can almost taste it 😉 xx
It is so tasty and so easy to make 🙂
Ooh look at those lovely holes! It sounds fabulous and a real bonus that it is easy too 😀
It is the first time I have made such holey bread 🙂
Would love to try this but cant quite get my head around 0.625ml yeast(liquid measure) Is this correct and how to measure? Maths was never my best subject.
Hi Tricia, I was amazed when I read his recipe and it worked. I was skeptical as well 🙂
Ignore my last request. Just looked at Dan Lepards recipe. Once I saw it as 1/4 tspn and saw your recipe was for even smaller amount the penny dropped. Me being dense. Love your site and recipes.
Thank you so much for the lovely compliment Tricia 🙂
Glad to see you’ve discovered Dan Lepard, Tandy. As you probably know, I’m a big fan. This bread looks beautiful.
I chose his recipe as I had faith it would work 🙂
It’s a crazy time of the year Tandy. Seems we are all doing the same thing. Lovely looking bread.
Have a happy day.
🙂 Mandy xo
It is manic here but I am finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel 🙂
I love your bread recipes – and this one is on the list to try!
This is so easy I am going to make it again!
it looks like a perfect slice with a nice butter. Oh I love good bread 🙂
It is a great loaf of bread Marta 🙂
Great looking loaf!
thank you!
Beautiful bread! Sounds very simple to make. Thanks for the recipe.
my pleasure Billy 🙂