Mastering the Art of Borek: 8 Recipes You NEED to Try!

Merhaba this is Aysenur Altan.  We are talking all about Börek!

Borek is a family of pastries made with a thin  flaky dough such as filo or yufka as we say in Türkiye.

It has a variety of fillings like  spinach, cheese, potatoes, and mince meat. In Türkiye we have fried boreks and baked  boreks. Talking about the yufka sheets, it  

can either be store-bought or handmade. Along  with Türkiye you can find the same pastry

borek with similar names in Balkanian countries, Middle East as well as Greece. I'm gonna show you  

eight different boreks to give you an idea  and samples from Turkish Cuisine. Let's begin.

I'm gonna begin with the easiest borek recipe you can make.

For this, we're gonna use a puff pastry. I  just rolled it a bit more to make it thinner.

Place cheese and chopped  parsley filling along the side.  

After sealing it beginning from the center, I  made a spiral shape and continue to fill my pan.  

Just brush with yogurt and egg yolk mixture  and bake in the oven. Beautiful, crunchy and delicious.

This is the most common borek kind. "Tepsi" means  "tray". In this method you place the phyllos to  

a baking tray or as an option you can make a  smaller break in a pan and cook it on the stove-top.  

We make our boreks with these phyllo sheets, we  call "yufka". It is widely available on the market.

But you can also try these recipes using the  thickest phyllo sheets on the market you can find.

We need a sauce to dampen the "yufka"s.  In this one, we have eggs, oil, and milk.

For this one, I made my borek with a  cheese filling, commonly we use Turkish  

white cheese. But you can also add some kashar or  mozzarella to give extra taste and oozing texture.

After oiling my pan or tray, I place one yufka phyllo sheets hanging from the sides and add one or  

two more depending on how big it is, wrinkling  to fit in, dampen with the sauce we made. Add the  

cheese filling along with the rest of the "yufka"s. And close the hanging "yufka"s on top.

Then bake on a stovetop as in here or in the oven  until golden color and crunchy on both sides.

And my "Tepsi Böreği" is ready  to serve along with the tea.

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You can also make your own yufka phyllo sheets. And I have a very easy technique to make at home.

You can watch the detailed recipe  if you are interested from the links.

This borek type is also very popular and very  easy to make. You just fry the rolled doughs  

and it becomes very crunchy. We are using classic  Turkish sheets. You fold it into four and then  

with this cutting method, you  get nice even triangle slices.

Place enough cheese filling  to the widest side and roll  

ceiling with a water and after that just  deep fry until golden color and crunchy.

Let me show you another borek type with spinach filling. For  the filling you saute an onion, add  

chopped spinach. Continue to saute  on high for a couple of minutes.  

Season it with salt, black pepper and red pepper  flakes. And it's ready. You can also use some  

crumbled cheese inside if you like. I'm using the  same borek sauce with eggs, milk and oil. After  

dampening the "yufka"s, I put from the filling and I  cut it from the middle and rolled as you can see.  

Then turn the piece into spiral and beginning  from the middle place it into your baking tray.

After filling the pan, brush the top  with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle some  

sesame and nigella seeds and bake until golden.

If you want to improve your skills by rolling  your own yufka sheets, this recipe is for you.  

It has a rich and very smooth soft dough to roll. And from each bowl you get four beautiful rose-shaped boreks.

Again it is also possible to make  this roll shape with the ready phyllo sheets.  

Please refer to the links down below to get the recipe. And don't forget to like the video if you are enjoying watching it.

Special to this borek video, I want to  share another technique that is popular  

in recent years throughout Türkiye. For  this borek we're gonna use three different  

fillings. In the first one I sauteed grated  potatoes, seasoned it with some black pepper  

salt and paprika. And let it cool down. You  will see the other two fillings in a minute.

To dump on my "yufka"s, this time I'm  gonna use only water and oil. I had an egg  

whites. Just using it not to throw away.  A pinch of salt and my sauce is ready.

For the recipe, I'm gonna use  five "yufka"s phyllo sheets.

I dampened with the sauce

the first one. And added the second one  as a base. Again drizzle from the sauce.

And in the first layer, I'm gonna use spinach  filling that I had in the fridge. Just sauteed  

onion, add it the spinach, seasoned it  with some salt, black pepper, paprika.  

That's it. Here is the third yufka.

After dampening it, as a second  filling I'm adding sliced salami  

or you can use pastrami pieces which is a cured meat.

Other options would be sauteed carrots  or you can just give your ideas for it.  

And for the third filling after the "yufka"s I added my sauteed potatoes.

It is really a very easy and versatile  recipe. You can experiment with other fillings.

The shaping is very easy. I'm gonna cut  the excess parts on the sides and put it  

to the center for easy rolling. And then  tightly roll all the layers together.

Now the only thing we need to finish shaping  it, is to slice and place it in a baking tray.

Especially for this recipe it will be easier  to use baking paper before placing the slices.

My oven is preheated to 200 celsius  degree. And finally I'm gonna brush  

the tops with egg yolk, oil and yogurt mixture.

I baked the 3 colored borek for about  35-40 minutes until I got nice golden color.

The combination of the 3 fillings comes out  very delicious and gives a beautiful pattern.

And it is so easy to bring all the things together.

For the last borek sample I chose "Laz Böreği".   

Cream Filled Sweet Borek. For this one we use thin  phyllo sheets for making baklava. After brushing the  

layers with the butter, in halfway you add the  cream filling continues to layer the phyllos.

Slice and bake until golden.  Finally add simple syrup on top.

So my friends as you can see we have many  different borek kinds. This was only the  

eight of them. We have many different boreks in  Turkish cuisine. You can have them for breakfast  

as a quick lunch, in the tea parties, you can  serve as a snack. Check all the recipes from  

the links description box below. Thanks for  watching and see you in the next episode, bye.