Börek is a general term in Turkish cuisine that applies to a family of pastries with about fifty different members. They have in common the fact that they are all pastry layers of some type enclosing a filling. There are two basic methods; one consists of rolling out very thin sheets of dough, called yufka in Turkish and phyllo in Greek. The other main type of börek, called nemse börek in Turkish, uses a dough very similar to pâte feuilletée, in which the dough is layered with butter, folded, and rolled out several times.
The following recipe describes the procedure required to prepare triangle-shaped börek from commercially produced phyllo. Links to recipes for fillings are listed at the end of the recipe.
Ingredients
Fillings
- Peynirli börek (white cheese filling)
- Kıymalı börek (minced meat filling)
- Tavuklu börek (chicken filling)
- Ispanaklı börek (spinach filling)
Assembly
- 2 cups prepared filling (see above)
- 1 box yufka/phyllo pastry sheets
- Melted butter or high-quality vegetable oil
Procedure
- Remove the phyllo sheets from the container. Unfold carefully so as not to break them. Lay them flat and cover with a clean, damp tea towel to prevent them from drying out—this is important.
- Working quickly, cut the phyllo into lengthwise thirds (step 1 in the diagram). Lay one of these out and cover the other two with the damp tea towel.
- Brush the strip of phyllo with the melted butter. Place a heaped teaspoonful of filling on one end of the strip (step 2 in the diagram).
- Fold the right lower corner upward over the filling to form a triangle (step 3 in the diagram).
- Now fold the right upper corner over to the left (step 4 in the diagram).
- Continue folding in this manner until you reach the end of the strip.
- Trim of any excess dough and seal the edges by rubbing a damp finger over the dough and pressing the edge of the triangle where the strip ends.
- Fry in oil at 340°F until golden brown or bake at 350°F for 15 minutes.