Banicza

Many housewives use for cookingbanits puff pastry, but this is wrong. In spite of the fact that the banitsa is at first glance made from puff pastry, in fact, the dough for this pie needs special. Thin strata of dough in Bulgaria can be bought in ready-made form, they are called "Measles for banitsa".

Traditional stuffing for banitza - it's cheese. Zelena Banicza is made with leaves of beet or spinach. If you want to make a sweet banitza, you can use a pumpkin with sugar and walnuts as stuffing - it will turn out "Pumpkin". In the Bulgarian area of ​​the Rhodope make banitza with potatoes - patatnik. On some sites you can also find a recipe for banitza with cottage cheese, but this is already the "initiative" of our culinary specialists.

Each Bulgarian family has its own banitza recipe. You can roll a cake roll as a kind of "snail", or you can simply shift the dough and the filling with layers. Correctly cooked banitza the top will be crispy, and inside - soft. The thinner you roll out the dough, the tastier the ready-made pie will be.

Banitza with cheese

To make a banitsa with cheese, take:

• 3 tbsp. flour


• 350 g of brynza


• 300 ml of water


• 100 g sour cream (can be replaced with yogurt, natural yogurt, yogurt)


• 4 eggs


• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (+ a little more to grease the shape)


• 1 tbsp. lemon juice (can be replaced with wine vinegar)


• a pinch of salt

First mix well into 2.5 cups of flour,water, vegetable oil, salt and lemon juice. It is most convenient to use a food processor or mixer for this. Stir the dough for about five minutes, then shift it to the table and mix a little more, adding the remaining flour. The total amount of flour depends on the consistency of the test. Good dough for banitsa should be medium density, soft and non-sticky. Ready dough should be covered with a bowl or wrapped in a food film and put aside for an hour. Then it will be easier to stretch and not tearing or rolling. If you prepare the dough in advance and store it in the fridge, get it an hour before making the cake - it should warm up to room temperature.

To cook the dough, finely chop the cheeseor grate it on a large grater. Bring eggs in the cheese, add sour cream and mix well until smooth. The filling is ready, you can get the dough. Dough for banitsa not roll out, and pull, so it is called an exhaust. It is most convenient to pull the dough on a towel, tablecloth or oilcloth. It is best if the selected substrate is with a pattern. What for? To adjust the fineness of the dough. The dough for banitza needs to be stretched so that through it the pattern is clearly visible.

Divide the dough into four parts. First slightly roll the dough piece with a rolling pin, and then start stretching: put the dough on the substrate, press the middle with the palm and pull the edges. When the dough becomes noticeably larger, raise it and continue to stretch it by weight. The dough is hard to tear - it is so elastic, but it's quite real to pierce your nail. Therefore, you need to stretch it with the back of the brush. Stretch should be gradual, without making sudden movements. You will see that the dough stretches the easier, the longer you stretch it. When you realize that you already stretched the middle enough, put the dough for the banitza back on the table and maximally stretch the edges. If the edge of the dough turns out too thick, trim it with a knife.

Stretched dough layer is evenly spreadstuffing (do not forget, there will be four such layers, so take a fourth of the stuffing). Leave approximately 2-3 cm from each edge. Wrap the sides of the dough up, on the filling, and roll the dough into a roll. It is most convenient to do this using a substrate - lift its near edge and evenly roll the roll from yourself. Roll the finished roll with a spiral. Lubricate the baking dish and put the roll in the center. Stretch the remaining three pieces of dough, make them the same rolls and wrap around the first, continuing the spiral. Tightly packed is not necessary, tk. the banitza rises when baking.

Lubricate the top of the pie with a yolk mixed witha tablespoon of water, butter, sour cream or the rest of the filling. Preheat the oven to 180-200 degrees and bake the banitza for 40-50 minutes (until the top blushes up). The finished pie should be sprinkled abundantly with water directly in the form, cover with a towel and leave for half an hour. Banicza with cheese is ready!

Banicza with pumpkin

Banicza with pumpkin is prepared in the same way as banitza with cheese, but for preparation of a stuffing it is necessary to take (by calculation on 0,5 kg of the test):

• 400 g of pumpkin


• 100-200 g of sugar


• 0.5 tbsp. walnuts


• 1 tsp lemon or orange peel


• 1 yolk to grease a pie


• cinnamon, sugar powder - to taste

To prepare the filling, move the gratedgrated pumpkin, sugar, finely chopped nuts, zest and cinnamon. In other respects, the recipe for banitza with pumpkin is the same as the banitsa with cheese. Just before serving, the banitsa with pumpkin sprinkles with powdered sugar.

Bon Appetit!