From breakfast to tea time, as a side or main dish, börek can be found pretty much everywhere in Turkish cuisine. And I mean, can you blame them? Made out of thin layers of yufka and stuffed to one’s desire, börek can be prepared in a variety of ways – and when I say variety, I mean there are tons of different options to choose from. Today we’ll have a look at just a few favorites.

What is yufka?

Yufka is essentially phyllo pastry, but I prefer to call it by its Turkish name because we are talking about Turkish cuisine here. You can buy them at pretty much every supermarket but personally speaking, I’d stay away from ready-made yufka. They are usually a bit tougher and don’t make for the best börek unless you're aiming to make a simple stovetop börek.

There are many specialty shops called "yufkacı" that sell them fresh, usually daily. It is a bit more expensive than the supermarket kind, but when you find the right shop you can make delicacies without breaking a sweat about tearing them.

Last but not least: You can make your own yufka. It is a simple dough usually made with flour, water and salt, but getting it thin enough requires a bit of mastery. But that's nothing you can’t handle! Besides, even if the layers get a bit thicker than intended, your fresh homemade yufka will taste a great deal better than anything else. Being made with love certainly makes a difference in taste!

Tepsi böreği and its different versions

Tepsi böreği is a kind of börek made in a baking tin. To make it, layer your yufka, spread the filling, more layers of yufka and some more filling. Close off with another piece or two of yufka and call it a day. That is the basic process for making all different kinds of tepsi böreği. The differences start with their fillings. Feta cheese with parsley is a favorite and so is minced beef, with onions, garlic and other herbs to make it more interesting. Many like to have their börek with potatoes as well, and do not get me started on all the kinds that feature vegetables! Spinach is a favorite in that department, commonly seen in many a pastry shop. But you might wonder why they don’t exactly taste the same and not even the consistency seems similar. This is because there are two parts of börek that are key: Fat and moisture. While butter gives a very rich flavor, commercially sold börek usually is not made with butter but rather with vegetable oil.

And moisture is super important as well! Each layer gets sprinkled with a mixture of fat and either milk or water. Börek made with water gets more crunchy while börek made with milk is on the softer side.

One kind of börek made in a tin is kol böreği, literally meaning "arm börek." The reason for that is simple: it is a long stretch of börek rolled together, each long piece like an arm. Instead of layering the yufka and adding the filling in between, the stuffing is spread in a line on a piece of yufka that is then rolled lengthwise. It is then put right onto the tin in a spiral shape, starting from the center and spiraling outward until the whole tin is covered.

This brings us to another kind of börek that gets rolled up:

Gül böreği

Literally meaning "rose börek," this one is a personal favorite of mine. The ingredients don’t change but the way it is prepared makes for a great portion and is an overall cleaner way of serving the dish. With each yufka, you get four small pieces of börek ready to serve. I’ll be giving you the recipe for my favorite minced meat version, I usually use beef, but there is absolutely no bounds to what you can stuff this with! If I end up with extra mushrooms, some lightly roasted chicken breasts, onion and the aforementioned mushrooms make for a great filling!

Ingredients