008Bougatsa with cheese

Method

Thessaloniki-style cheese bougatsa. Customarily chopped into small squares and eaten piping hot straight from the paper wrap.

You will need

• large smooth work surface or pastry marble
• baking sheet (35 x 25 cm)
• pastry brush
• bench knife or heavy chef knife
• small saucepan

1. Knead 400 g bread flour, 1 tsp salt, and 210 ml water for 10 minutes until elastic and smooth; divide into 4 balls, coat each in melted butter mixture, and rest on an oiled tray for 40 minutes. 50 min Ready when: dough is soft, very stretchy, and well relaxed
2. In a bowl, mix 350 g crumbled feta, 1 beaten egg, 100 ml milk, 2 tbsp semolina, and a pinch of black pepper into a soft, spreadable paste. 3 min Ready when: creamy cheese mixture without large dry lumps
3. Preheat a conventional oven to 200°C (400°F) and brush a 35 x 25 cm baking sheet with melted butter. 5 min · 200°C / 400°F Ready when: oven reaches high heat
4. On an oiled worktop, flatten one ball of dough with oiled hands and gently stretch the edges outward in all directions until it becomes a sheer, paper-thin sheet measuring about 60 cm across. 6 min Ready when: pastry is transparent enough to see the work surface through it
5. Flick melted butter across the stretched sheet, fold the left and right sides into the centre to create a wide strip, and lay the cheese filling in the middle. 2 min Ready when: filling neatly centred on buttered strip
6. Fold the top and bottom of the strip over the cheese to form a neat parcel, then set this parcel aside. 2 min Ready when: filling enclosed in a small rectangular envelope
7. Stretch the second dough ball paper-thin, drizzle with butter, place the cheese parcel seam-down in its centre, and fold the outer sheet over it into a double-wrapped rectangular parcel. 5 min Ready when: inner envelope fully wrapped in a fresh sheer layer
8. Transfer the parcel seam-side down onto the prepared baking sheet, brush generously with remaining butter, and repeat the process with the remaining two dough balls to make a second pie. 10 min Ready when: both parcels rest seam-side down on the tray
9. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 30 to 35 minutes until the pastry is blistered, deep golden brown, and shattering crisp. 35 min · 200°C / 400°F Ready when: pastry is puffed, blistered, and crackles when pressed
10. Remove from the oven, let rest for 5 minutes, then cut with a heavy knife or cleaver into bite-sized rectangular morsels in the Northern Greek baker style. 5 min Ready when: pastry shatters crisply as knife cuts through

Tap a step to tick it off.

Make ahead and storing

Assembled parcels can be refrigerated for up to 4 hours before baking, or frozen unbaked.

Eat immediately while hot and crisp; reheats moderately in a dry hot skillet or oven.

Substitutions

• half feta and half mizithra or ricotta for feta. Creates a lighter, less salty cheese filling common in Serres.
• store-bought thin bougatsa or yufka filo for strong bread flour. If hand-stretching is intimidating, brush 6 to 8 commercial filo sheets generously with butter to form the envelope.

Common mistakes

• Rushing the dough rest before stretching. Unrelaxed gluten causes the dough to snap back and tear rather than stretching into a gossamer-thin sheet.
• Baking at too low an oven temperature. Bougatsa needs intense heat so the butter turns to steam and puffs the microscopic layers before the cheese makes them heavy.

Regional variants

• Bougatsa Serron: often exceptionally light with local sheep butter, famed for both cheese and minced meat varieties.
• Bougatsa me kima: savoury Macedonian bougatsa stuffed with spiced minced beef and black pepper.

About the dish

Bougatsa arrived in Northern Greece, notably Serres and Thessaloniki, with Asia Minor Greek refugees following the 1922 population exchange. While sweet custard bougatsa dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon is widely known abroad, savoury bougatsa with salty cheese or minced meat is equally popular across Macedonian breakfast bakeries (bougatsopolia). The signature technique relies on throwing and stretching the dough in the air until translucent, then folding it around the filling envelope-style with liberal amounts of butter or melted fat.

Found in Macedonia, Thrace, Attica. Cooked for everyday, sunday lunch.

Cousins elsewhere

• Poğaça (Turkish). Shares the Ottoman name root (ultimately from Latin panis focacius), though Turkish poğaça is a soft leavened bun while Greek bougatsa is stretched paper-thin layered pastry.
• Sirnica (Bosnian). Stretched filo pastry filled with curd cheese and eggs, rolled or folded and baked golden.

Nutrition per serving (estimate)

615 kcal · protein 17.4 g · fat 35.5 g (saturated 20.4 g) · carbohydrate 56.2 g (sugars 3.5 g) · fibre 1.9 g · sodium 1066 mg

An estimate (summed from ingredient estimates) that varies with the exact ingredients. It is not dietary advice.

Written fresh by Epikouria editors from general culinary tradition. Recipe by the Epikouria editors. Following the Serres and Thessaloniki bougatsa-master craft of hand-stretched buttered envelope pastry..

Products for this dish