Cheese Borek Recipes

TURKISH BOREK RECIPE

Steps:

• Make spinach filling. Combine the spinach, onion, spices, and herbs in sauce pan and cook for 5 minutes, just long enough to warm and combine ingredients. Let cool and drain excess liquid.
• Make egg wash for pastry. Beat eggs and add in sunflower oil and yougurt. Set aside.
• Decide on layering technique, and start layering your yufka or pastry dough, brushed with egg mxture, then spinach.
• Brush the remainder of egg wash on top and sides of borek, and sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.
• Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, until browned.
• Remove from oven and serve warm.

TURKISH BOREK RECIPE (SIGARA BOREK)

Steps:

• First, know that yufka, like phyllo dough, is delicate and might break. That's completely okay.
• To make the spinach filling: Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Saute onion until golden, add spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted. Once the spinach is cool enough to handle, mix it with cheese, salt and pepper.
• To make potato filling: Wash and peel the potato. Cut it into large chunks and boil until fork tender. Mash the potato completely and add Aleppo pepper, salt and black pepper.
• To make the cheese filling: Mix cheese with parsley, salt and pepper.
• Place a triangle shaped yufka dough on a clean surface, with the wide side facing you. Wet your finger with water and moisten the edges. This will help the edges to stick while rolling.
• Add one to two tablespoon of filling one inch away from the wide edge and form it into a thin log.
• Fold the outer corners over the filling and roll the borek. Dip your index finger in water and wet the edges again and roll tightly. Set aside and continue with the remaining yufka and filling.
• Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a non stick pan over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, place the boreks in the oil and fry on all sides until crispy and golden. Don't over crowd the pan. Place the boreks on a kitchen paper towel to absorb the excess oil.
• Continue with the remaining boreks and add more oil if needed.

CHEESE BOREK

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, parsley, garlic and crushed red pepper. Mix in Gouda and Emmentaler.
• One sheet at a time, place phyllo dough on a flat surface and brush with about 1 tablespoon butter. Cut lengthwise into 4 strips. Place a rounded teaspoon of the egg mixture at one end of each strip. Fold corner of strip over the filling, forming a triangular fold. Continue folding the length of the strip in triangular folds to form a small stuffed triangle. Repeat with remaining phyllo dough.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly butter a large baking sheet.
• Arrange stuffed phyllo triangles in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve warm.

EASY CHEESE BOREK (ARMENIAN CHEESE TURNOVERS)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

BOREK - CRISPY TURKISH CHEESE PASTRY

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Prepare the filling by mixing feta, cottage cheese, egg and parsley together.
• Prepare a working station. Place the phyllo sheets, baking sheet, a bowl with olive oil and a pastry brush on the table. Spread one phyllo sheet on the table and brush it gently with olive oil. Fold it in half. Brush with a tiny bit of olive oil. Fold in half again. Brush with a little oil again. Now, place about 2 tablespoons of the cheese filling on one end of the rectangle. Fold dough over filling, forming a triangle. Fold triangle over, forming another triangle. Continue folding until you reach the end of the rectangle.
• Place the Borek triangles onto the baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.

BORAGS

Steps:

• Take the dough out of the refrigerator about 15 minutes before using. Once fillo dough is exposed to air, it dries out very quickly, becomes brittle, and is impossible to use. Be sure to have plastic wrap and a damp towel ready to cover the dough to keep it pliable while you fold the borags.
• If using large fillo sheets, cut the fillo dough in half, lengthwise. Use one half sheet for each borag. Cover the other sheets first with plastic wrap, then the damp towel, while folding each borag.
• Fold each half sheet in half lengthwise. Brush surface with melted butter.
• For each borag, place a spoonful of filling at the end of the folded dough that's closest to you. Begin folding, as though you were folding a flag - on the diagonal from corner to corner, creating a triangular shape. If there is extra dough at the top, just trim it off or tuck it under.
• Continue to do this until you run out of filling - or dough.
• Keep the folded borags covered with plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out.
• Melt about ½ stick (or more) of unsalted butter.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Brush the top of each borag with melted butter.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Return leftover fillo it to its original wrapper, seal it tightly, and store it in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
• Leftover cheese filling can be spread on bread then heated under the broiler. There's raw egg in the mixture, so cook before eating!
• Use the same cheese filling as above.
• Instead of using regular fillo dough sheets, use prepared mini-fillo cups (sold in packages of 15). They can be found in the freezer section of most grocery stores.
• Fill each cup almost to the top with the filling. The amount of cheese filling given in this recipe will fill about 3 boxes of the mini-fillo cups - or - about 45.
• Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 - 12 minutes.

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.