Banitsa with Cheese in Bulgarian

This cake is a visiting card of Bulgaria. But there are similar pastries in the kitchens of Moldova, Serbia, Greece. Traditional banitsa dough is drawn out. It can be replaced with a ready-made filo.

Ingredients

• 400 g filo dough
• 400 g not very salted cheese
• 150 ml natural yoghurt
• 3 eggs
• 100-125 g ghee or melted butter

Directions

1. Place the feta cheese in a bowl and break it into small pieces with a fork. Add yogurt and eggs and stir well.
2. Grease a square ceramic dish with sides 25x25 cm.
3. Defrost the filo dough in advance. Take out one sheet at a time for work, cover the rest with a damp towel, otherwise they will dry out quickly. Place the first sheet on the bottom of the mold so that the ends hang over the sides. Brush with ghee.
4. Place the second sheet of dough and brush with butter. Lay the third sheet so that it only covers the bottom of the form. The dough forms folds and creases, like crumpled paper. Spread about 1/5 of the filling over the dough.
5. Alternate layers of crumpled dough and filling until three sheets of dough remain. Cover the filling with the next layer of dough, brush with butter. Cover it with the edges hanging from the sides of the form and lay another sheet. Grease liberally with butter and lay on the last sheet of dough.
6. Use a sharp, narrow knife to pierce the pie in several places and brush liberally with butter. Preheat oven to 180 ° C. Bake the cake for 40–45 minutes, until the top layer of the dough is brown. Place the cake pan on a wire rack and remove the top, dry layer of dough. Brush the remaining butter on the cake. Serve warm.