Banitsa recipe

Bulgarian brine cheese bound with yogurt and baking soda, rolled inside filo ropes coiled into one spiral.

1 hour and 25 minutesmedium8 ingredients

Ingredients

• 400 g sirene cheese
• 12 slice filo pastry
• 4 eggs
• 200 g yogurt
• 100 g butter
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 50 ml sunflower oil
• 1 pinch salt

How to make Banitsa

1. Crumble 400 g sirene by hand into rough lumps. Sirene is a Bulgarian cow's milk brine cheese, tangier and wetter than feta; feta is a fallback, not the real thing.
2. Whisk 4 eggs with 200 g plain yogurt and 1/1 tsp baking soda. It will fizz. That reaction is what makes the filling light instead of dense.
3. Fold the cheese into the egg mixture. Salt only if it tastes flat, sirene is already salty.
4. Melt 100 g butter with 50 ml sunflower oil and brush a 28 cm round tin.
5. Lay one filo sheet, brush it with the butter mix, spoon a line of filling along one long edge and roll it into a loose rope.
6. Coil the first rope in the centre of the tin, then repeat with 11 more sheets, winding each new rope around the last into one spiral.
7. Brush the top with the remaining butter and bake at 180°C for 40 minutes, until deep gold.
8. Out of the oven, sprinkle 50 ml water over the top and cover with a clean cloth for 10 minutes. This softens the crust the Bulgarian way.
9. Cut wedges from the spiral and serve warm with ayran.

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