Su böreği
Su böreği, or “water börek”, is one of the most prized — and most laborious — Turkish böreks, often served for breakfast. Thinly rolled sheets of egg dough are briefly boiled, layered with butter and white cheese with parsley, and baked. The result is somewhere between lasagne and a pastry bake — soft, springy layers inside with a golden, crisp top and bottom. It is a weekend dish: it takes almost three hours (an hour and a half of it hands-on), but one tray feeds twelve.
Your own work in that: 1 h 30 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Resting 30 min
- Rolling and boiling the sheets 60 min
- Layering 15 min
- Baking 40 min
- Resting after baking 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake the dough
Knead the flour with the eggs, water and salt into a firm, smooth dough, as for pasta, about 10 minutes. Divide into 10 balls — one slightly larger (about 100 g), the rest equal.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 60 ml water · 1 tsp salt
Rest the dough
Cover the balls with a cloth and rest 30 minutes. Meanwhile crumble the cheese and mix it with chopped parsley, and butter a 30 × 40 cm tray.
Ingredients: 300 g white brined cheese (beyaz peynir) or feta · 1 bunch parsley · 150 g butter, melted · 1 tbsp salt for the water
Lay the base
Roll the larger ball thinly so it hangs over the edges of the tray and lay it raw in the bottom. Brush with butter.
Ingredients: 300 g white brined cheese (beyaz peynir) or feta · 1 bunch parsley · 150 g butter, melted · 1 tbsp salt for the water
As thin as you can — easiest with a long, thin rolling pin.Roll and boil the sheets
Bring a wide pan of salted water to the boil, with a bowl of cold water alongside. Roll the next ball into a sheet the size of the tray — as thin as you can, almost translucent (about 0.5 mm). Lower it into the boiling water, letting it wrinkle loosely, boil one minute, lift it with a slotted spoon into the cold water, then onto a cloth to drain.
Ingredients: 300 g white brined cheese (beyaz peynir) or feta · 1 bunch parsley · 150 g butter, melted · 1 tbsp salt for the water
A minute in boiling water, then into cold.Layer the sheets
Lay the boiled sheet on the base — wrinkled is fine, it need not be smooth — and brush with butter. Add 3 more sheets the same way. Roll and boil the next balls as you go.
Ingredients: 300 g white brined cheese (beyaz peynir) or feta · 1 bunch parsley · 150 g butter, melted · 1 tbsp salt for the water
Add the filling
Heat the oven to 200°C. Spread the cheese and parsley evenly over the fourth boiled layer. Cover with 4 more boiled sheets, brushing each with butter. Fold the overhanging base edges inwards.
Ingredients: 300 g white brined cheese (beyaz peynir) or feta · 1 bunch parsley · 150 g butter, melted · 1 tbsp salt for the water
Cheese in the middle — four boiled layers above and below.Cover and bake
Roll the last ball and lay it raw on top — it gives a crisp crust. Brush generously with the rest of the butter and bake 35–40 minutes, until golden on top and underneath.
Ingredients: 300 g white brined cheese (beyaz peynir) or feta · 1 bunch parsley · 150 g butter, melted · 1 tbsp salt for the water
Rest and cut
Leave the börek 15 minutes under a cloth so the layers soften, then cut into squares. Serve warm, with tea, olives and tomatoes.
Ingredients: 300 g white brined cheese (beyaz peynir) or feta · 1 bunch parsley · 150 g butter, melted · 1 tbsp salt for the water
Before you start
With ready-made sheets
Turkish shops sell yufka for su böreği (su böreklik yufka). It is boiled and layered the same way, and the whole thing takes an hour less.
Which cheese
Traditionally beyaz peynir, a Turkish brined cheese, is used. If your feta is very salty, soak it 30 minutes in cold water or mix it half and half with curd cheese.
Storage
Su böreği keeps 2 days in the fridge. Reheat it 10 minutes in an oven heated to 180°C, sprinkled with a little water so the layers do not dry out.
