Recipes
Classic bulgarian banitsa with cheese
The most authentic dish of the Bulgarians!
Looks cheerful with its shiny golden colours, its crunchiness makes your mouth water every time you think about it and the best thing about the banitsa is that takes only a few ingredients to make and less than one hour.
There are many varieties of the banitsa, also very popular – with pumpkin, with spinach, with whatever else you like. Another famous holiday banitsa is the one with cow cheese and spring onions.
You can use your imagination and make the banitsa with different kinds of cheese such as feta cheese, goat cheese, cow cheese – it would work. But nothing beats the good old classic with cheese.
Banitsa is best paired with Bulgarian classic yoghurt or airan.
You can make airan by mixing one cup of yoghurt with water. Add a pinch of salt for better taste. Another drink you can pair it with is ths classic boza – very creamy, very thick drink that would keep you well sated during the day!
Classic bulgarian banitsa with cheese recipe
Ingredients
- 400 g cottage cheese whatever kind of cheese works, as long as its more on the salty side
- 6 eggs
- 1 pinch baking soda
- 200 g butter you could exchange it for sunflower oil, but a 50/50 blend of both works best
- 1 pack phyllo pastry use the fine ones for extra crunchiness
Instructions
- You have to start by buttering the baking pan. Be careful not to miss a spot. Then you'll have to unpack the sheets and use two at atime.
- Prepare a separate sheet next to the baking pan and unfold two phyllo sheets.
- For the filling - mix five eggs, 100 grams of butter and almost the entire cheese in a separate bowl. Whisk it until its one homogenous concoction and add the pinch of baking soda and perhaps a small teaspoon ofsalt for flavour.
- Once you have unfolded the first two sheets you have to grease them and slowly add the filling as you're folding them back up. Don'tforget to grease them on each side for maximum crunch.
- Once you have done all the sheets in cute long rolls you can arrange them in circles in the baking pan or just lay them as they are.
- Use the separate egg and mix it with the leftover butter with the last crumbs of cheese(if you have any left), add a pinch of salt and you have the topping for the banitsa.
- Once you've finished putting everything together in the baking pan, put in the oven for about 20-25mins at 200 degrees.
Notes
- One small tip - when you've laid them all the pan - cut them in squares. It would help the banitsa to bake evenly on the inside.
- Leftover filling would work just the same if you have any left, but I usually set some ingredients aside just in case for the topping.
- Fat: 17.36 g
- Carbs: 21.63 g
- Protein: 9.13 g
- Energy: 254 kcal
