Adjarian khachapuri
Adjarian khachapuri is eaten in one specific way, and that is part of the recipe: the yolk and butter are stirred into the hot cheese with a fork, and then you tear off pieces of crust and dip them in the sauce you have made. The boat shape is not decoration — it holds a liquid centre. The cheese is a blend: salty for flavour, stretchy for texture.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Rising 75 min
- Shaping the boats 15 min
- Baking 18 min
- Egg 5 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneKnead a soft yeast dough
Mix the flour with the yeast, sugar and salt, then add the lukewarm milk, yogurt and oil. Knead for 10 minutes — the dough should be soft and slightly tacky. The yogurt gives it the elasticity that lets the edges of the boat be rolled without tearing.
Ingredients: 450 g strong bread flour · 180 ml milk · 100 g natural yogurt · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 8 g salt · 3 tbsp oil
Rise for 75 minutes
Leave in an oiled bowl until doubled. The finger test: a dent pressed a centimetre deep should fill back slowly and not completely.
Ingredients: 450 g strong bread flour · 180 ml milk · 100 g natural yogurt · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 8 g salt · 3 tbsp oil
Doubled, and the dent fills back slowly.Mix the two cheeses
Combine the crumbled feta with the grated mozzarella and one egg. Two cheeses are necessary: feta brings salt and acidity, mozzarella the stretch. Feta alone would be too salty, mozzarella alone bland.
Ingredients: 300 g feta · 300 g mozzarella · 1 pcs egg
Shape the boats
Divide the dough into four, roll out ovals, spread the cheese along the middle and roll the long sides inwards, then twist and pinch the ends. Pinch them hard — in the oven the cheese turns liquid and finds every gap. Move the boats onto a tray lined with baking paper and heat the oven to 230°C.
Ingredients: 450 g strong bread flour · 180 ml milk · 100 g natural yogurt · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 8 g salt · 3 tbsp oil
Sides rolled in, ends twisted and firmly pinched.Bake 18 minutes at 230°C
Bake in a well-heated oven until the edges are deep gold and the cheese is bubbling and browning slightly on the surface. The high heat is needed so the crust forms before the cheese scorches.
Ingredients: 450 g strong bread flour · 180 ml milk · 100 g natural yogurt · 7 g dried yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 8 g salt · 3 tbsp oil
Make a well and slide in the yolk
Take the boats out, make a well in the hot cheese with a spoon and slide in a raw yolk with a cube of butter. Return to the oven for 1–2 minutes — the yolk should only just set at the edges and stay liquid. A runny yolk is undercooked: for children, pregnant women and older people, bake longer until it has fully set.
Ingredients: 4 pcs egg yolks · 60 g butter
Yolk at the end, back in the oven for a minute or two.Stir it in and eat with your hands
Serve immediately and stir the yolk and butter into the cheese with a fork, at the table. Then tear off the twisted ends and the crust and dip them in the middle. That is how Adjarian khachapuri is eaten in Georgia.
Ingredients: 4 pcs egg yolks · 60 g butter
Before you start
Instead of feta and mozzarella
In Georgia the cheeses are imeruli and sulguni; sulguni can sometimes be found in Georgian or Eastern European shops. Feta with mozzarella is the closest widely available substitute — you can swap part of the feta for bryndza, which gives a similar saltiness.
The cheese must be dry
Mozzarella packed in brine releases water and the filling splits into fat and liquid. Squeeze it out and pat it dry with kitchen paper, or better, buy the dry block sold for pizza.
The Imeretian version
A closed, round version without the egg, with the cheese sealed inside like a pie. Simpler to make and better for taking away — the boat has to be eaten at once, since cooling cheese turns rubbery.
