Malibu Grange

It is amazing what wonders can be created using a little flour, water and oil.  I suppose we really need to thank the millions of resourceful bakers who have tirelessly worked throughout the centuries selflessly dedicating their time next to hot ovens, scorching coals and wood fires to carry on the tradition of Balkan pastry.  In this case, I am speaking of burek, börek, böreg, boureki, boereg, brik and byrek, depending on which country your frame of reference is from, though it all means the same thing – a flaky pastry stuffed with a myriad of fillings depending on history, location and season.

Burek comes in many shapes and sizes – from enormous curlicues to little neat triangles – though legend has it that the most popular circular version renowned throughout the Balkans originated in the southern Serbian city of Nis by a Turkish baker named Mehmed Oglu in 1498.  The city celebrates this highlight with its annual “Burek Days Festival” held at the end of August.  The recipe spread from Nis throughout the holdings of the Ottoman Empire at the time, which makes sense since today the majority of the Balkans, the Middle East, the Caucasus and North Africa all have some version of burek.  My version comes from Macedonia where I first had burek from a specialty bakery called a “burekjilnitsa” in Tetovo when I was a small girl.  It was greasy and heavy, filled with a white cheese called sirene, similar to feta.  Wrapped in a softer version of butcher’s paper, the grease soaked through the thin tissue and ran all over my fingers.  It was delicious especially when accompanied with the traditional cold yogurt drink.  I would guess that the yogurt helped cut the fat and aid in the digestion of the dough.  Yogurt or kefir is still the main burek beverage of choice.

Burek is a culinary specialty created by master bakers behind closed doors with heavily guarded recipes.  In the commercial realm mostly men work in burek bakeries as the work is laborious and traditionally only men worked outside of the home.  The pastry stretching process is done by hand as no self-respecting “burekjilnitsa” would ever use packaged phyllo for its creation.  The public wouldn’t stand for it.  I have been trying for years to get into a few of the burek bakeries in Michigan where there are large populations of ex-Yugoslavs pining for the good stuff, and the owners would have none of it for fear I would steal their trade secrets.  Good thing my aunt Lence is also a crafty wizard in the kitchen and will stop at nothing to perfect a recipe.  We all know that true culinary innovation begins at home and I was lucky enough to be the recipient of her prowess when she came to visit.

Traditionally burek is made with lard or suet for its structure and ability to inhibit the gluten in the flour, allowing the dough to be stretched and pulled to extreme lengths while retaining its integrity.  In Lence’s modern version we forego lard for canola oil.  After trying a variety of other oils such as olive and sunflower, she decided that canola works best.  (I have not done any statistical analysis on the variations but with results this delicious I don’t have to.)  We also used unbleached white flour.  She practiced with bleached and pastry flours and we even did a white whole-wheat flour version – but nothing worked as well and tasted as wholesome as unbleached.  This could simply be our bias; I am sure bleached flour would work just as well. The whole-wheat version, while tasty and earthy, did not yield the same flakey results.  We need to continue working on our recipe for that one.  Perhaps in a subsequent story.

That said, we set up shop with our Kitchen Aid mixture and began the process.  We began with:

1. 5 cups of white unbleached flour
2. 2 cups of tepid tap water
3. ½ tsp. of salt
4. 1 cup of canola oil

That is it!  We added four cups of flour with the salt to the mixer using the paddle attachment at first to get it going in the right direction.  We added 2 cups of water and mixed on a lower setting for a few minutes until the flour and water were nicely incorporated.  Then we slowly added the remaining cup of flour and mixed well for about 2 more minutes, at which point we traded the paddle attachment for the dough hook and really got the pastry moving for another 5-7 minutes until smooth and elastic.  We had to stop the hook and manually pull the dough off of it for a thorough mixing from time to time.  The dough was ready when it was moist but not wet, firm yet still soft and smooth to the touch.

We then removed the dough from the mixing bowl and cut it into five separate equally shaped pieces.  Kneading by hand helps work the dough a bit more ensuring elasticity and silkiness, and helps fix any mixing issues in the bowl.  Once soft and smooth, each piece is flattened slightly to a round disk.  But first you must figure out what sort of upright-sided bowl you are going to use to stack each disk.  I didn’t have a proper container tall enough, so as you see from the video we used a small and tall saucepan.  I would recommend having your bowl ready before hand so you know to what size you will flatten your disks.  You don’t want to flatten them too much and ideally you want the disks to fit snuggly into the bowl.  A container about 5 inches across and 6 inches tall works well.  At this same time you should also consider what you are going to bake the burek in.  The ideal burek pan is a larger version of a cake pan – about 15 inches across, though I have no idea where you would find this.  We used a rectangular cookie sheet with one-inch sides.

Once we found our containers, we added a bit of oil, then the first disk, oil to cover, then the second disk, and so on until all the disks are covered with oil.  Then cover the container and set aside for one hour for the oil to soak into the dough.  At this point you should prepare your filling ingredients.  Possible options include spinach and cheese, seasoned minced meat, egg and cheese, nettles, leeks, cabbage, apple, sweet cherries, potatoes, mushrooms, chickpeas and more.  In our version, we have decided to use Swiss chard and French feta cheese because that is what we had readily available.  Plus I love the flavor profile of Swiss chard when paired with pastry because it can hold its own.

We took our washed Swiss chard and cut into thin slices.  We sprinkled a teaspoon or so of salt over it and carefully kneaded the chard until slightly wilted.  Then we added in the feta cheese and two uncooked scrambled eggs to help with the binding and flavor, and set it aside our combination until our hour was up.  It is important to note that regardless of what your filling is you should have enough for five handfuls as each layer gets one handful of filling, so plan accordingly.

Most importantly is to have a table large enough to pull the pastry.  From the video above you see that we were fortunate to have a large marble table for our use.  Find a space that you can oil down and pull pastry around.  Then one by one, gently though firmly remove each disk pulling and stretching as far as each will go in the shape of your baking container.  It is truly fascinating to watch.  Then handful by handful, add the filling sparingly around and fold the sides over to your shape.  Each disk becomes enveloped in the next one, so that in the end, the fifth layer covers the previous four.  Don’t forget to lightly sprinkle oil between layers.  Once complete, place the entire burek in your pan, pour the remaining oil from your container over the burek and bake in the center of an oven preheated to 375 degrees.  We baked our burek for about 30 minutes or so.  You want a nicely browned crust that is reddish underneath though not burnt, so be mindful.

Also, because of the oil in the pastry and the extra that is poured on top, the burek essentially is deep-frying in the oven.  You don’t want that extra oil floating on top and underneath, so once the burek is done you should promptly remove the pan from the oven, tilt it slightly while securing the burek inside, and pour out the hot oil into a different container.  Don’t worry, there is still plenty of oil in the pastry, though at least a 1/3 of a cup runs out.

Place on the counter, cut away pieces and enjoy!  It is best eaten the same day it is made, but reheated in the oven days later it was just as delicious.  We ate ours accompanied with a nice glass of cool viognier, but, of course, cold kefir would taste equally as delicious any time of the day.

NOTE:  For the white whole-wheat flour version we used the same quantities of flour but an extra half cup of water, though the version worked much better with only 4 cups of flour and 2 cups of water, which then would render only 4 balls, though since the pastry is thicker and more rigid anyway because of the wheat flour, it makes for a better pie in the end.