- If you ever heard about Balkan cuisine, you could not have missed this one – gibanica. Gibanica is one of the most beloved dishes in Serbian cuisine, but also across Balkans- in Macedonia and Bulgaria. It is made of handmade filo dough, slightly thicker than the French, sold in specialty diary shops across the world or in local shops in the Balkan countries. It is stuffed with fresh cow cheese, young kajmak (clotted cream) and fresh farm eggs. There are two types: layered and “crumpled”. It can be eaten for breakfast with yogurt, festive lunch as appetizer and dinner and the smell of freshly baked gibanica reminds every Serbian of childhood. I still hold my grandmother Dusanka as the ultimate master of gibanica making, as she uses fresh cheese and kajmak for it. This recipe is a result of trial and error based on very vague recipe of my grandmother.
Gibanica
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- Prep Time
- Minutes
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- Cook Time
- Minutes
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- Yield
- 8
- Difficulty Level medium
Ingredients
- 500g filo dough pastry (can be purchased in international supermarket or online)
- 5 small eggs
- 300g white cow cheese (cottage, Turkish white cheese or mascarpone)
- 150g kajmak (or clotted cream as a substitute)
- 200g sunflower or other neutral vegetable oil
- 200ml sparkling water
- 5g baking powder
- salt, to taste (depending on the saltiness of cheese)
Instructions
- If you are using frozen filo, take it out from the freezer and defrost on room temperature. Filo should stay in room temperature at least 1 hour before you use it, as it is very sensitive to temperature changes and it may break when you separate the sheets.
- In a larger bowl beat the eggs for 2 minutes till foamy.
- In another bowl combine cheese and clotted cream mixing well with a spatula or using an electric mixer. Try the cheese mixture to estimate the amount of salt you would need to add later.
- Add the cheese to the egg mixture and continue mixing. Continue adding sparkling water, oil, baking powder and salt to taste. Leave on the side.
- Preheat the oven to 200C.
- Grease the 28cm round fireproof baking dish. Lay two filo sheets in the bottom.
- Take a sheet and soak it in the egg mixture for 3 seconds till it’s well coated. Crumple the sheet in a shape of a ball (like paper when you make a mistake and you want to throw!) and place round the edge of a baking dish. Repeat the same process until you populate the whole baking dish), reserving two filo sheets to cover.
- Cover the pie with remaining filo sheets and brush with oil. Tuck the sides well in and place in the mid rack of the oven.
- Depending on the strength of your oven bake on 200C between 40-55min, till the top sheet becomes golden brown. Once it is done, open the oven door and let cool for 10 minutes leaving the pie inside. Then take it outside and sprinkle with water, cover with a kitchen towel and let cool for another 10min.
- Serve warm with a glass of cold drinking yogurt.
- Servings : 8
- Ready in : 70 Minutes
- Course : Appetiser
- Recipe Type : AppetizerBreakfastPieSerbian food
- Ingredient : eggs, feta cheese, filo
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