With its glowing gold yellow color on top, börek rolls, a filled savory treat made from thin, flaky dough are delicious snack options especially served in hospitages in Türkiye.
They can be enjoyed both cold and warm and are stuffed with all kinds of ingredients, from minced meat and rice to veggie options like spinach, potatoes, and cheese.
Traditionally served in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, they’re often sold in Turkish snack bars and bakeries. Making your rolls is easy – unless you also want to make the dough from scratch. That’s not impossible either but it requires some practice and, most of all, time.
Similar to preparing puff pastry, the dough used for börek rolls, also called yufka filo, requires sieving the flour before mixing it with other ingredients.
Mix in some cornflour and iodized salt before forming a hollow in the middle of the mixture and pour in the oil and lukewarm water. Knead all the ingredients well and gradually add water until the dough is elastic.
Now form it into a ball and leave to rest for at least one hour. Then roll out the dough in portions on a floured work surface as thinly as possible into flat triangles.
A classic börek filling is spinach with cheese. Mash some cheese that has matured in brine with a fork and mix with some low-fat natural yogurt and finely chopped herbs such as parsley and thyme. Now lightly saute fresh spinach with onions and garlic, drain and add to the cheese mixture.
Then season with spices and place a spoonful of the mixture in the center of each triangular sheet of dough. Fold two corners over the filling, roll up tightly and press the tip firmly so the filling can’t leak out.
Börek rolls are traditionally fried but if you like yours a little lower on the fat, you can also bake them in the oven, says Germany’s Federal Centre for Nutrition (BZfE).
Brush the dough with little oil and sprinkle some sesame seeds. Once the börek is golden brown, it can be taken out of the oven.
If you don’t have time to make yufka filo from scratch, you can also buy or order ready-made little triangles. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll still need to coat them with a little water or oil before baking because yufka dries out quickly and breaks easily.