Khachapuri - Georgia's favorite cheese-filled bread

Khachapuri is one of the most common traditional dishes in Georgia. It has many variations. In Georgia, khachapuri is eaten by people of all ages at any time of the day - for breakfast, lunch, or as a snack. In Svaneti, it is filled mainly with sulguni cheese, but it can also be filled with Turkish Gazi cheese or feta cheese with 55% fat content. You may have tasted khachapuri before, but it tastes even better fresh out of the oven. Maybe it will become a favorite in your kitchen too.

Khachapuri recipe

Ingredients

1 kg wheat flour
50 g yeast
100 ml milk or water
50 g butter
4 eggs (for the dough)
1 kg sulguni cheese
5 onion stalks
salt

Preparation

Dough

Heat the milk. Add the yeast, eggs, flour, and butter and mix well. The khachapuri dough should have a similar consistency to bread dough. Cover the dough in a bowl with a dish towel and place it in a warm place to rise for two to three hours.

For the filling

Squeeze the whey from the sulguni cheese. The cheese mass is then thoroughly kneaded by hand. Add the finely chopped scallions, mix everything and add a little salt. Take enough dough to make an apple-sized ball. On a floured surface, press the dough so that it is about 15 centimeters in diameter. Place the cheese ball in the middle of the dough.

Grasp the dough by the edges and wrap the cheese ball. Pinch off the remaining dough and return it to the dough bowl. Roll the dough and cheese ball in your hands until smooth. This ensures that the dough and cheese are smooth. The ball is then flattened by hand to a thickness of about one centimeter.

Finally, make a small hole in the top of the pastry to allow the cheese to expand in the heat. The pastry is baked at high heat (about 300 degrees) on both sides, like a pizza. The khachapuri is then spread with butter. The dish is most delicious when eaten hot, but can also be enjoyed cold.