Burek (or also named börek) is a fried or baked filled pastry that is made out of a thin almost transparent flaky pastry dough – commonly called phyllo (and also yufka).

These pastries can be filled with meat, cheese, pumpkin, there can be many options as to what to fill bureks with.

Preparation of BUREK

This is traditional Serbian pastry dish called in native language “BUREK” and is simple to make and even simpler to bake. It’s very nice, you might be making it again and again once you eat it. If you practise making bureks more often you will start making the dough and everything else burek requires much faster and more professionally so to speak.

Dough for Burek:
(Metric measures)

• 500 grams White Flour
• 300 ml water
• Pinch of salt
• 100 ml vegetable or sunflower oil
• 100 grams Lard ( or if no lard use 200 ml oil in total – inclusive the above 100ml)
• 100 grams Feta cheese crumbled
• 400 grams Cottage cheese 2% lite
• 1 egg ( optional if cheese is too dry)

Burek dough:
(US measures)

• 17.6 ounces Flour
• 10 fluid ounces water
• Pinch of salt
• 3.4 fluid ounces vegetable or sunflower oil
• 3.5 ounces Lard ( or if no lard use 6.8 fl-oz oil in total – inclusive the above 3.4 fl-oz)
• 3.5 ounces Feta cheese crumbled
• 14 ounces Cottage cheese 2 percent lite
• 1 egg ( optional if cheese is too dry)

Steps in making proper Burek

Mix first three ingredients well by hands in a large bowl until dough gets easily off your fingers.

Cut the amount in 5 same size balls and flatten each into a round shape – size of CD/DVD roughly.

Mix the oil and the lard in some deep dish until smoothly blended together and place in all 5 dough piece.

Let them sit in for about ½ an hour which assures they are all well soaked.

On a clean smooth table surface, sip some oil to make the surface slippery. Your working area should be at least 1 meter = 39.4 inches in radius.

Take the dough pieces out of the dish with oil and place them at the edge of table piling up each.

Take the first piece. Place it in the center of your working area. Press it by fist in way you are shaping the pizza dough but very flat. Then lift one edge in the air while rest of dough still sits glued to the table, this will help you while pulling the dough edges slowly to make it even thinner ( you could almost see through ). It’s easy to do and also the dough stretches very easily.

Great, hardest part is done successfully. Congratulation, you just earned yourself a skill that will help you make your guests extremely happy every time you make some dough based meal. ( Will post more Burek recipes soon )

Now is time to mix cheese and then separate in 4 small same size parts. Put first 1 part in a middle of that thin dough and fold excess of dough over the cheese from 5 sides.

Flip the pack over up-side-down SLOWLY CAREFULLY, and put aside on some plate until you stretch your second dough.

Stretch the second dough to flat, then spread second amount of the cheese over it again just the same way you did with your first.

NOW be careful: Take that first packed-up dough (remember it’s upside-down now) and place it on top of this second cheese. Then fold over the excess dough wrapping the two together.

GREAT. Now do the same with the rest of dough pieces ( last fifth 1/5 dough piece doesn’t need cheese just wrap the whole thing in it ones you make the last thin dough.)

Choose a round baking pan, ~ 25 centimeters or ~ 10 inches radius ( square would be OK as well ) and grease it inside a little bit with an excess from the mixture of oil and lard. Sprinkle just a bit of flour over as well enough only to dust the grease.

Gently place your unbaked burek gently in the pan. Now it’s ready for baking.

Burek can be baked in wood fired ovens or any conventional oven at 200 degrees Celsius = 392 degrees Fahrenheit until golden brown all-over and that’s when a great smell of baked cheese spreads all-over your place!

Jadranko, Kelowna, BC, Canada