Banitsa

Ingredients

Quantities for 8 servings.

• 500 g Filo pastry
• 500 g Bulgarian white cheese, crumbled
• 5 piece Eggs
• 250 g Yoghurt
• 0.5 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• 120 g Butter, melted
• 60 ml Sunflower oil

Method

1. Crush the cheese with a fork and work in four of the eggs: the filling should stay crumbly rather than becoming a paste.
2. Mix the melted butter with the sunflower oil: that lets the sheets crisp without burning.
3. Lay two overlapping filo sheets, brush with the fat, scatter the filling in a crumbly line along the long edge and roll it loosely.
4. Coil the roll into a round tin from the centre outwards, leaving a couple of millimetres between the turns.
5. Whisk the yoghurt with the last egg and the bicarbonate and pour it over, aiming into the gaps between the coils.
6. Bake at 180 °C for forty-five minutes, to a deep gold. Cover with a cloth for ten minutes out of the oven.