Burek came with The Ottomans to the Balkans. Local people tweaked it over the centuries. Here is a version from Niš, as given by Mamamaja on Coolinarika forums. I made it as a part of Kuvarijacije, event created by mamajac of Cooks and Bakes. To be honest, I freaked out when I saw this was the theme as I thought it was too difficult for me. But, now, after making it, I think even a small child could do it. I wonder, why is making phyllo-like doughs so mystified?
Burek
First, make a soft dough out of 500 g sifted flour, 1 tsp of salt and water. This is how original recipe goes. I poured 500 ml of water into a measuring cup and added it gradually to the dough. About 250-300 ml was enough.
Divide the dough into 5 equal balls. Flatten each ball into 15 cm diameter circle and soak in a mixture of equal parts of oil and melted pork fat. About 200 g pork fat will melt into about 200 ml. This, with the addition of 200 ml of oil will be enough.
Leave it like that for about half an hour. Take one piece of dough out of the fat, put directly onto a table and flatten with your hands as much as you can. Than, start pulling it gently just like when making a strudel. A note to those who made a strudel - this one works even easier!
The dough is very easy to work with. It stretches like a bubble gum :)
Next, spread some cottage cheese over the middle of the stretched dough. Lots of it. And before you spread the cheese over the dough, squash it with a fork.
Fold dough over the cheese to nicely wrap it up. But cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. Transfer gently to a large plate while you flatten another piece of dough that you take from the fat.
After you flatten the second piece of dough, and spread cheese over, place the previous packed dough over the cheese. Just make sure that the side that was touching a table now goes on top. Wrap again, and continue with the rest of the dough pieces.
Bake in a preheated oven on 200°C until golden on top.
And one more thing - don't throw away the fat mixture. Put it in the fridge and use for cooking/frying later.
37 comments:
Thank you so much for this recipe! My husband is Croatian and one of our favorite treats when we visit Zagreb is Burek. I've seen people stretching to dough before and I've always wondered what it actually is. Now I can try it myself! My husband will be so surprised!
Marija, bravo on your handmade phyllo...it's an art form and one that demands patience and practice.
That dough looks amazing. I'm bookmarking it to try some time.
Vau! Super ti je ispao!
Divno!
Jos jedan prekrasan burek,
od jucer uzivam gledajuci kako su ga svi prekrasno napravili.
Marija, ti i od najobicnije stvari napravis pravo remek djelo,
Savrseno izgleda :))
Marija,it's come out very well!Bookmarked!! :)
Fantasticna fotografija!!! A da ne govorim o vjestini razvlacenja kora... :)
Predivan ti je Marija:) Baš sam sretna jer nam je svima, baš svima uspio i svi smo prezadovoljni:))
Impressive! I've made burek but the dough has never been as easy to stretch as yours looks. I don't know if I can get myself to use the porkfat though!
zadivljena sam svim izvedbama ovo predobrog bureka, tvoj je fantastican!! fotke su predivne kao i cijeli postupak rada!
Odlično ti je ispao:) Ovaj krug Kuvarijacija je s razlogom sve oduševio:)
Prekrasno ti je ispao! Idući put ću i ja staviti malo više sira, vidim kako je kod tebe lijepo bogat :)
wow this looks so good and the recipe is really interesting :)
This looks and sounds delicious. And wow .... that dough is absolutely paper thin. You certainly produce beautiful pastries.
i tvoj je burek super ispao. posebno mi se sviđa ona etno torbica, podseća me na detinjstvo i moje selo :)
Very well done! Yummy! Now that i've made strudel pastry, I feel more confident with making that kind of speciality from scratch!
Cheers,
Rosa
wow! jako lijepa prezentacija, vidi se da ti je odlično ispao...morat ću ga i ja napraviti :D..ona torba crvena na prvoj fotki mi se jako sviđa!! jako lijep motiv..:)
predivne su ti slike, predivno si ga napravila :)
This looks amazing! I would love to make this at home but my family doesn't eat meat. Can you suggest a vegetarian substitute for pork fat?
looks great
Savršen je!!!
I ja sam ga spremala još pre neku godinu isto po Majinom receptu,samo je bio sa mesom :))
Do you make five layers of cheese, making just burek out of all the dough?
If I understood the question correctly, yes, you will have 5 layers of cheese in a burek.
I hope this helps?
Nikako da naučim tako razvlačiti tijesto. A razlog je valjda da nikad nisam imala dobrog učitelja za tu vještinu. Slike i recepti su ti lipi, kao i uvijek.
Kako kod svih vas razvlačenje kora izgleda jednostavno, a meni nikako ne uspjeva! :)
Moram ovaj recept ubrzo isprobati jer vidim da ste svi imali odlične rezultate! :)
Marija, what a great job you've down with burek! The dough is paper thin, the filling looks delicious, and wow, the end result is mouthwatering. I have strong feelings for bureks of all sorts:)) so can't take my eyes off the screen.
So beautiful before and after baking! creating paper thin dough for me is still a bit of a challenge..your looks lovely. Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe.
I totally agree with Peter, you've done a great job doing this recipe. Is a masters skill to dominate (even try to recreate) a phyllo dough. Congrats!
btw,one question: do you think I can substitute the fat for vegetal shortening? Have you ever tried that?
besos,
h
Marija, The dough is exactly like the one I used for 'roti canai'! even the soaking in oil part....its fun to make isnt it bt rather messy tho....we use it to make flat fluffy and layerd pancakes to eat with curry ..sometime we fill it with minced meat curry too and fry ina shallow pan......must try ur filling one of these days tho looks sooo good!
This reminds me of burekas, its tasty treat from the middle east, but much thinner. This looks delicious!
Zoe, that's it! We just call them differently in Serbia :)
Homemade phyllo: I am in awe!
Pa normalno bre da je burek u Nis i iz Nis najbolji. Ovo je Srbija !
What a wonderful dough! Most of the English translated recipes call for phyllo dough but not many know that there are 2 kinds of phyllo, one is the type that anyone can buy in grocery stores the other can be found only in Turkey, Greece and maybe some of the neighboring countries. I've been looking for a home made recipe for...well, forever. Thank you for posting this.
I can't believe I finally found a recipe for authentic Burek, you have no idea how many years I've been looking for this recipe. I live in Sydney, Australia and have had these a couple of times at a Bakery that closed down years ago. I'm so excited that I have found this and will try it ASAP. Thank you so much for posting
Wow--homemade phyllo dough? I am still terrified--but if I ever get up the nerve I'll be heading back to this post. It must be worth it. I had the greatest bureks (and cevapi, but that's another story) on my travels in Croatia and Bosnia...I've tried to make it at home with frozen phyllo dough and it wasn't close to right (though the filling was still tasty). This may be the only way.
But, let me make a struedel first to build up my confidence!
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