Do you want to try Turkish borek, but without rolling pin, oklava, or ready phyllo sheets? The easiest way you can make it from scratch! Then this borek recipe is for you! Make it with a thin dough, cooked like a crepe, and fill it with any filling you want.
What is börek / borek?
Borek is a savory pastry made of thin flaky dough sheets such as filo/ phyllo which we call yufka with a variety of fillings, such as meat, cheese, spinach or potatoes. In Turkey, we usually buy yufka or filo sheets from the store. The possibilities are endless to make different boreks like Rolled Spinach Borek “Ispanaklı Börek” or Turkish Borek With White Cheese If you want to level up and make your own phyllo/ filo sheets I would say go for it and try Turkish Borek From Scratch. There are many techniques and some of them are easier than you think.
Even though I enjoy making everything from scratch or spending time in the kitchen cooking, there are times you are busy with other things or you are just lazy maybe 🙂 So this recipe is for those times if you still want to eat homemade instead of ordering or eating packaged food. If you make the crepe-like dough another time and keep it in the freezer it would take 2 minutes to put together to cook.
Ingredients For Easy Turkish Borek:
- For the sheets:
- 1 cup flour
- About 1+1/4 to 1+1/2 cup water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp each sesame seeds, caraway seeds, nigella seeds ( all optional )
- To cook vegetable oil
- For the filling:
- Sautéed onion with ground beef
- Melted cheese
- Other filling ideas; sautéed onion with spinach and seasonings, sautéed onion with mashes potato and seasonings, Turkish white cheese or feta with crumbled or chopped parsley
- For the seasonings:
- Black pepper, red pepper flakes
How To Make Lazy Afternoon Turkish Borek
Prepare the sheets:
- First add 2/3 cup of flour and then add the water and add half a tsp salt.
- And add the seasonings; sesame seeds, caraway seeds and nigella seeds. Seeds are optional but they give some texture and color and make it nutritious.
- Add rest of the water. And mix everything very well. And we will rest the mixture to let it combined everything. Just cover and wait for 15 minutes.
- After resting the mixture; heat the pan and oil with olive oil. If the mixture is still thick you can add more water to have a spreaded consistency. Get good amount of the mixture and spread to the nonstick crepe pan.
- Cook until it begins to shrink and begin to get out from the pan at sides. We don’t want to cook too much since we are going to cook as a borek. So some golden spots will be enough.
Shape & Cook The Borek
- You can shape the borek as classic shape or rose borek shape. And to make it longer, place two sheets together, and add the filling. I used left over sauted minced meat onion mixture with some kashar cheese (or use mozzarella)
- And then roll the “yufka” sheets. I cut the ends, because it seemed very thick.
- Make a rose shape and put it in oiled medium pan. Continue to roll and place until the sheets finished.
- Cook the borek on medium-low heat to get some nice golden color crust. If it needs any oil, give some butter pieces from the sides and shake the pan or drizzle olive oil again. Turn the borek with a plate or flat lid and cook the other side and your borek is ready to enjoy!
Easy Turkish Borek:
Ingredients
For the sheets:
- 1 cup flour
- 1+1/4 to 1+1/2 water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sesame seeds optional
- 1/2 tsp caraway seeds optional
- 1/2 tsp nigella seeds optional
- 2 tbsp olive oil
For The Filling
- Sautéed onion with ground beef
- Melted cheese
- Other filling ideas; sautéed onion with spinach and seasonings sautéed onion with mashes potato and seasonings, Turkish white cheese or feta with crumbled or chopped parsley
For the seasonings:
- Black pepper, red pepper flakes
Instructions
Prepare the sheets:
- First add 2/3 cup of flour and then add the water and add half a tsp salt.
- And add the seasonings; sesame seeds, caraway seeds and nigella seeds. Seeds are optional but they give some texture and color and make it nutritious.
- Add rest of the water. And mix everything very well. And we will rest the mixture to let it combined everything. Just cover and wait for 15 minutes.
- After resting the mixture; heat the pan and oil with olive oil. If the mixture is still thick you can add more water to have a spreaded consistency. Get good amount of the mixture and spread to the nonstick crepe pan.
- Cook until it begins to shrink and begin to get out from the pan at sides. We don’t want to cook too much since we are going to cook as a borek. So some golden spots will be enough.
Shape & Cook The Borek
- You can shape the borek as classic shape or rose borek shape. And to make it longer, place two sheets together, and add the filling. I used left over sauted minced meat onion mixture with some kashar cheese (or use mozzarella)
- And then roll the “yufka” sheets. I cut the ends, because it seemed very thick.
- Make a rose shape and put it in oiled medium pan. Continue to roll and place until the sheets finished.
- Cook the borek on medium-low heat to get some nice golden color crust. If it needs any oil, give some butter pieces from the sides and shake the pan or drizzle olive oil again. Turn the borek with a plate or flat lid and cook the other side and your borek is ready to enjoy!
- Enjoy your borek while it is still hot and crispy with a glass of Turkish tea
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