If you know, you know. If you don't, you're about to find out! I have one word for you- Burek!
What is Burek?
Burek is a traditional food in Easter Europe. Burek is phyllo dough filled with seasoned ground beef, feta cheese, or spinach. The outside is crispy and flaky while the inside is ultra thin layers of softer, chewier dough. The ground beef is seasoned with a traditional seasoning called “Vegeta” and black pepper. Burek is traditionally served with a glass of cold yogurt. If you're in New Jersey, Burek King in Clifton, NY on Parker Ave authentic, great tasting Burek.
The most difficult part of making traditional Burek is the phyllo dough. Although there are only a handful of ingredients in the phyllo dough, it takes, in some cases, years of practice to get it perfect. The difficult part of perfecting the phyllo dough is because it has to be made extremely thin. I’m talking paper thin without breaking it apart. In order to get it thin, you have to get the dough very elastic. The reason why the dough has to be super elastic is because you need layers of super thin dough. I mean paper thin dough. It sounds easy until you try it for the first time. In order to stretch it paper thin, it needs to be incredibly elastic.
What helps makes the dough elastic:
- Gluten in the flour
- Correct ratio of ingredients
- Proper resting time of the dough
- Fat
So you have heard me talk about this phyllo dough but you are probably wondering-well- what is the recipe for this Burek phyllo dough. Well, the ingredients for the phyllo dough are: flour, water, salt, vegetable oil, and butter ghee. The ingredients are difficult to measure because they vary based on moisture in the air. If it’s humid, you will need less water, if they air is dry, you will need more water. The flour, salt, water, and oil are mixed and the dough is kneaded until fully combined and very soft. Then, it is placed to rest at room temperature coated in ghee.
Many people that make this at home, will use oil or butter instead of ghee and that will work just fine. Letting the dough rest contributes to it’s elasticity so this step is extremely important.After the dough has had time to rest, it is stretched to be paper thin. If you’re an expert, this process takes seconds to a minute. The paper thin dough is folded multiple times, which will create thin layers. The center of the dough is filled with the filling of choice. Then, that filled section is placed in another paper thin section of dough.
Have you tried Burek? If not, would you?