Bulgarian Banitsa

If you are Bulgarian or have ever been to Bulgaria 🇧🇬, or maybe you have Bulgarian friends chances are you have tried banitsa ( баница ) 😋.

There many different ways to prepare this traditional pastry dish but all of them include whisked eggs 🥚 and white cheese 🧀 layered between filo pastry and baked in the oven.

Banitsa also takes important place certain celebrations like New Year’s Eve 🎉 🎊 🥳 when we put lucky charms (words “love”, “health”, “happiness”, “marriage”, “money”, etc. written on tiny pieces of paper and wrapped in foil) in the banitsa and whatever you pick this will be your luck during the new year 🤩

For Christmas Eve, we bake the banitsa with pumpkin 🎃 rather than cheese and it is called “tikvenik” (тиквеник). If you haven’t read my post about Christmas Eve, here is a link to it 😎

Banitsa is eaten for breakfast usually with plain yoghurt or ayran 🥛.

Below is a very simple recipe of banitsa – it includes a glass of sparkling water which makes it rise more. This is where the name is derived from – “puffy banitsa” (пухкава баница). 🥮

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Ingredients 📝:

400 g ready made thin filo pastry sheets (make sure they are thin!)
400 g of feta cheese 🧀
5 eggs 🥚
50 g of butter 🧈
1 glass (220 ml ) of sparkling water 💦

Method 👩‍🍳:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C (fan)
Crush the feta cheese into small pieces
Melt the butter in the microwave
Using a brush, make sure that you grease the whole round tray

Place two filo pastry sheets at the bottom of the tray
Place a bit of cheese and sprinkle a bit of melted butter on one sheet

Start folding it about 2-3 cm like paper harmonica (make sure the cheese stays between the folds)

Start arranging in the baking tray starting from the edges and working your way towards the centre
Keep doing that until you have filled the tray

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and add the sparkling water. Add any leftover melted butter
Pour the mixture on top of the layered filo pastry. Make sure you pour a lot on the edges so that the banitsa is not dry or stuck to the tray