Today’s post is courtesy of my mom. She’s the bread maker in the family. And she very generously allowed me to make a video of her making these cheese-stuffed bread buns. You may know Börek by a different name, as it is part of different cultural cuisines. From what I could gather, it has Turkish origins and refers to stuffed flaky pastry dough. The shape and size of these parcels vary. So, whether you call them Börek, byrek, or boureki is up to you. Just be sure to give this pillowy, cheesy bread a try.
Bread takes time. Kneading dough, allowing it to double in size, shaping it, and waiting for a second rise is not a quick task. While there are a few steps and quite a bit of waiting in between, in the end, nothing beats warm, freshly baked bread. And this börek combines my love of carbs and cheese. It’s heavenly.
Notes on Ingredients
My source, my mom, tells me that Turkish recipes often use yogurt, where a similar recipe would call for milk. For this reason, the egg wash can consist of either milk or yogurt along with the egg yolks.
Speaking of eggs, you will need two large eggs. The egg whites go in the dough mixture, and the yolks make up the egg wash.
Notes on Method
The coming together of the dough is simple. There is no waiting around for yeast to bloom. All you need to do is dump, yes dump, all the ingredients for the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer. Then let your dough hook do all the kneadful work.
When it comes time to cut the dough, you can make as many pieces as you like. But make sure they are uniform in size; this will ensure the börek bake evenly. I suggest making 10-12 pieces. I’ll be honest, making ten leads to börek so large it could suffice as a meal on its own.
Börek
INGREDIENTS
For the Dough
- 1 kg all-purpose flour
- 13 g dry instant yeast
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 200 mL warm milk - about 105°F
- 100 mL neutral oil
- 200 mL warm water
- 150 g yogurt
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs - separate the yolks and whites
- 400 g feta cheese - crumbled
- 1 tbsp milk or yogurt
- ~2 tbsp sesame seeds
METHOD
For the Börek Dough
- To the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, yeast, warm milk, oil, warm water, yogurt, salt, and egg whites.
- Using the dough hook attachment, knead the dough. Start at a low speed and work up to a medium speed. Knead for a few minutes until the dough pulls away from side of bowl and is smooth in texture.
- Cover the dough and allow it to rise for 2 hours. A warm, draftless place such as the oven is ideal.
Shaping and Baking the Börek
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Shape into a loose rectangle and cut into 10 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.
- Work with one ball of dough at a time, keeping the remaining dough loosely covered with a tea towel, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil.
- Slightly flatten the dough with your palms and then using a rolling pin, roll out into a thin oval.
- Sprinkle or spread the crumbled feta cheese over the rolled out dough. You want the dough to be evenly spread out. But you do not need to spread the dough over every square inch of the dough.
- Starting from the side nearest you, begin to roll the dough onto itself to form a rope.
- Now, coil the rope of dough into a circle and tuck the loose end under the bun. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and loosely cover with a tea towel, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil.
- Repeat with the remaining 9 pieces of dough. And set aside to rest 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Mix two egg yolks with either 1 tbsp milk or 1 tbsp yogurt. Brush/dab the egg wash onto the buns and sprinkle the tops with sesame seeds.
- Bake for 40 minutes, turning trays half way through.
