All Easy Recipes. Cook all that you can cook. Flaky Cheese Rolls
(Banitsa)
 
What You Need:            (Serving Size: 16 rolls)
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  • ½ pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 pound brynza cheese, or substitute 1 pound feta cheese (see Glossary)
  • ½ cup unflavored yoghurt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 16 sheets filo pastry, each about 16 to 18 inches long and 12 inches wide (see Glossary)

  • How To Cook:
    1. Preheat the oven to 400. With a pastry brush, spread 2 tablespoons ofthe melted butter on 2 large baking sheets.

    2. Crumble the cheese between your fingers, then force it through a food mill set over a deep bowl or rub it through a fine sieve with the back of a spoon.

    3. Add the yoghurt and eggs, and beat vigorously with a spoon untilthe mixture is smooth. Transfer about half of the cheese mixture to a pastrybag fitted with a 1/3-inch-wide plain tip.

    4. Assemble each banitsa in the following fashion: Place one sheet of filo on a kitchen towel and brush it evenly with a teaspoon of the butter.

    5. Carefuly fold the fragile pastry in half crosswise to make a two-layered rectangle about 12 inches long and 8 or 9 inches wide.

    6. Brush the top with about ½ teaspoon of the butter. Pipe a strand of the cheese mixture from the pastry bag along one long side of the rectangle, starting and ending ½ inch from the ends.

    7. Then roll the pastry into a narrow cylinder, lifting the edge of the towel to help you, and brush it lightly but evenly with butter.

    8. Now gently curl one end around once or twice up to the middle of the cylinder, brushing it lightly with butter to keep it moist.

    9. Curl the other end around once or twice in the opposite direction, until you have created an S-shaped spiral. With the aid of a long spatula, transfer the filled cheese roll to a baking sheet.

    10. Then proceed to make the remaining banitsasimilarly, lining them up side by side on the baking sheets. Bake the banitsa in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, or until they are crisp and a delicate golden brown.

    11. Slide them carefully onto a large heated platter and serve at once as afirst course or as an accompaniment to drinks.

     
     
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