Burek Recipes

EASY CROATIAN BUREK RECIPE

Steps:

• Take a large bowl and combine the flour and the salt
• Add the water bit by bit, mixing until the mixture forms a dough
• Knead the dough for around five minutes, until it turns quite stretchy
• Split the dough mixture into batches of four and press down to flatten
• You need to find a bowl or a pan which is large enough to hold the dough when it is piled up on top of each other
• Add a little bit of vegetable oil to the pan or bowl and put the first flattened piece of dough inside
• Add a bit more oil (not too much), and add another piece of dough - repeat until you've done the same with all four pieces
• Add more vegetable oil on top of the last piece and place to one side to rest
• Preheat your oven to around 200°C (390°F)
• Add a little vegetable oil over your work surface (a table is best) - just a little!
• Remove one piece of dough from the bowl and remove the excess oil
• Flatten the piece of dough until it reaches a thickness of no more than around half a centimeter
• Handle the dough and stretch it outwards, over and over, so that you pull it to around 1 meter in diameter - you might end up with a few holes but don't worry about it too much. By the end, you should be able to see through the dough
• Take one side of the dough disc and fold it over, towards the center
• Repeat this process until you have a shape that resembles a pentagon
• Repeat with the second piece of dough
• Add your filling (see below for the filling instructions) to the dough piece
• Add the first piece of stretched dough into the middle of the second one, and cut away the thick edge of the second piece - you can throw this away, you won't need it
• Fold over the edges of the dough, so that you get a pentagon shape once more, and put it into a baking pan or tray
• Put the pan in the oven and bake for around half an hour, until it is a golden color
• Remove from the oven and let it cool down
• Cut into 12 pieces
• Repeat the process with the rest of the dough
• Bake until the pastry turns golden, and serve while warm!
• Take a mixing bowl and add in both kinds of cheese, combining together
• Add the egg and combine once more
• Take a large pan and heat up the oil over a medium heat
• Add the onion and cook until soft
• Now, add the mince and cook for around 2 minutes, stirring regularly
• Now, add the potato, the rosemary, the garlic, and the paprika, and stir to combine
• Add the salt and continue to cook, ensuring the beef mince is cooked through
• Once cooked, drain the beef with a sieve to get rid of any excess oil and press down to dry it out

BUREK

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Brown ground beef in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain fat; stir in allspice, paprika, salt, and pepper. Transfer beef to a large bowl and stir in potato and onion.
• Unroll phyllo pastry and transfer 2 sheets to a work surface; stack sheets. Spoon 1/8th of the ground beef mixture down one long edge of the phyllo pastry. Roll phyllo into a tube, encasing beef. Shape the tube into a coil (snail shape). Place the roll on an ungreased baking sheet; brush with melted butter. Repeat, placing finished rolls up against one another to keep them from unrolling.
• Bake burek in the preheated oven until golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes.

TRADITIONAL ROLLED BUREK (BOREK) RECIPE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Heat a large frying pan over medium-low to medium heat and add the oil.
• Sauté the onion until soft and then add the ground beef, allspice , paprika , salt , and pepper to taste.
• Cook until the meat is crumbly but not dry. Cool completely before you continue. While ground beef mixture is cooling, preheat oven to 375 F.
• Once cooled, lay one sheet of phyllo dough on the counter. Keep the remaining sheets of phyllo dough covered with a damp kitchen towel, and work quickly to prevent it from drying out.
• Brush sheet with some of the melted butter. Place a heaping 1/3 cup of meat mixture on the sheet along the long side, 2 inches from the edge.
• Fold the bottom over the meat mixture and roll into a snake shape. Cut the roll in half and coil each roll into a snail shape.
• Place rolled dough and ground beef pinwheel on a nonstick baking sheet and butt the end up against the edge of the pan to prevent uncoiling. Brush with additional butter. Continue until you've used all the ground beef.
• Bake in a preheated oven 15 to 20 minutes or until just golden. A hint for handling phyllo dough: Be sure the dough is at room temperature before you open the box. Place the sheets of dough on a large cookie sheet and cover them with plastic wrap and then a heavy towel. In this way, they will not dry out while you are working with them. Work fast for best results and do not have the butter too hot when brushing the dough. Recipe Source: The Frugal Gourmet On Our Immigrant Ancestors by Jeff Smith (Wm Morrow) Reprinted with permission.

FETA CHEESE BUREK (PHYLLO DOUGH)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet lightly.
• Mix feta cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese, and eggs together in a bowl. Whisk milk and oil together in a small bowl.
• Brush milk-oil mixture over 3 sheets of phyllo dough and stack together. Place some of the cheese mixture in a straight line on one end of the dough. Roll up tightly to form a spiral shape. Transfer spiral to the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining milk-oil mixture, phyllo dough, and cheese mixture.
• Bake burek in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 40 minutes.

ALBANIAN BYREK

Steps:

• Prepare the dough with flour, 1 and a half cups of cold water, 1 spoon of oil, 1 spoon of vinegar and half a teaspoon of salt, so that the dough may obtain average solidity.
• Press and mix the dough well, then divide in two equally sized pieces. Then divide the pieces into 10-12 ball shaped pieces.
• Spread the balls in well-shaped circles of the size of a plate. Place the circle-shaped dough on top of one another so as to obtain two large pies.
• Cover each pie with melted butter and leave for about half an hour to 1 hour.
• During this time wash a bowl of spinach, dock or sorrel, cut thin, add salt and leave in salt for about 15-20 minutes, then squash.
• Mix the spinach, dock or sorrel with half to 1 cup yogurt and 2-3 eggs.
• You can replace the yogurt with crumbled feta cheese. Cover the baking pan with melted butter.
• Spread one of the dough pies to cover the entire pan and gently pull up the ends, then sprinkle melted butter on it and spread the spinach on it uniformly.
• Spread the second dough pie on top of the spinach.
• Cut the byrek in square slices, sprinkle with melted butter and place in a hot oven until cooked.
• Byrek is served hot accompanied with yogurt.