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Banitsa Bulgarian Cheese Pie recipe and review of Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust by Mindy Quigley

Banitsa Bulgarian Cheese Pie

I am Jarka Gagamova. Here is this recipe. You must read it so you can make traditional Bulgarian cheese pie.
Time you should be preparing this pie: 20 minutes
How long you should cook this pie and how hot should your oven be: 30 minutes at 175° Celsius.*
How many people this pie should feed: 6 people
*Sonya says that because I live in America now I must tell to you that it is 350° Fahrenheit.
Everyone in the world is using Celsius except for America. You have ounces and inches and what in heck are even yards? To measure this way makes no sense.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 44 minutes
Course Appetizer
Cuisine Bulgarian, Greek
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • Oil or butter, for greasing the pan
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup 250 grams natural Greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp 7 grams baking soda
  • 2 cups 400 grams finely crumbled feta cheese
  • 10-15 phyllo pastry sheets, defrosted if frozen
  • 8 Tbsp 115 grams unsalted butter, melted

Instructions
 

  • Preheat your oven to 175°C/350°F.
  • Grease a 9-inch pie plate with a little oil or melted butter.
  • Crack the eggs into a medium-sized bowl and beat them not too hard.
  • Add the yogurt and baking soda. Mix until foamy.
  • Stir the feta cheese into the mixture.
  • Unroll the phyllo pastry, then paint the melted butter on one phyllo sheet.
  • Put two or three spoonsful of egg-and-cheese mixture on top of this phyllo sheet, leaving about 3-5 centimeters of space all around the edges.
  • Spread the mixture around the center of the pastry dough. Gently for this, like you are stroking the cheek of a very small, small baby, or else you will rip the dough.
  • Roll the sheet of phyllo pastry up loosely like a log, starting from the long side.
  • Beginning from the center of the pie plate, place each filled log next to each other on your pie plate. Little by little, this will form a spiral shape like a magnificent snail.
  • Keep doing this until you have done this with all of your pastry or you cannot fit any more pastry.
  • If you have left any melted butter, brush it on top of the whole pie and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until golden.
  • Leave to cool for 20 minutes before you cut the pieces.
  • Serve with extra yogurt for the side, and also have a glass of fruit liqueur such as rakia.
Keyword appetizer, feta cheese, phyllo dough