Water Borek is one of the most favoured böreks around Turkey. The original version is pretty tricky, try this recipe which is much easier to put it together and impress your family and guests.
Local traditions about water borek
In local Turkish villages a good bride candidate is supposed to make a good water borek, to impress her mother in law, so that she is pleased and willing to bless the wedding.
Can I use store-bought filo sheets?
Of course you can. I do not have the patience nor the time to prepare a water borek from scratch. However I do have a recipe using ready made filo sheets (“yufka” in Turkish) which makes delicious water boreks each time I make them. Yufka is the same as thing Filo pastry. It is thinly stretched layers of dough popular in Balkans and Turkey. Buy filo sheets suitable to make borek, not baklava. If you can only find triangle ones, they will work too.
Can I prepare this borek the day before?
One of the nice things about this borek is that you can prepare it the night before, keep it in the fridge and bake the next day. Like I did today. It performs much better when prepared the day before, as it absorbs all the milky mixture.
This moist borek is so delicious, I prepared a big batch and sold them for charity in the International Women‘s Event in Istanbul. They were a great hit and sold out very quickly.
I also offered as tasters at the British International School event, for promoting my cookery classes in Istanbul. Good old days.
What is borek filling?
Generally you are free about the fillings of boreks. You can make a borek with cheese, ground meat, potatoes, spinach, leeks, lentils, almost anything. However this borek is always prepared with just cheese and parsley. Cheese, as seen in the picture is called white cheese the most similar cheese to it is feta cheese. But try Turkish or international markets near you first.
You need to soak up the yufka sheets in a mixture of eggs, water, oil and milk. This mixture makes the borek soft and moist. No butter is needed. I prefer to use sunflower oil, but any vegetable oil of your choice will do.
I suggest you cut the borek to pieces in the size you plan to serve before baking to make sure all the mixture is well absorbed. It will be ready in about 45 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 180° Celsius (350° F). Rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
If you liked this recipe, please also check my Tray Borek recipe with spinach filling too.
Enjoy!
Water Borek
Ingredients
Borek
- 5 phyllo sheets / yufka
- 400 millilitres water
- 400 millilitres milk
- 200 millilitres sunflower oil or olive oil
- 4 eggs
Filling
- 400 grams white cheese
- 1/2 bunch parsley
Instructions
- Break the eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk lightly.
- Then into the same bowl add; water, milk and olive oil. Whisk all together so they are well combined.
- Oil a large baking dish or an oven tray with olive oil using an egg brush. Make sure you oil the sides too.
- Take a whole yufka and spread it onto the tray. Leave the corners laying out.
- Spread some of the milky mixture on top of the first yufka.
- Take the second yufka, rip it into half with your hand.
- Soak each piece one by one into the milky mixture and spread it gently on the first yufka.
- Take the third yufka and repeat what you have done with the second one.
- Spread evenly the cheese mixture.
- Take the fourth yufka and repeat what you have done with the second one.
- Now pack the corners of the first yufka on top as if closing the lids of an envelope.
- Take the fifth yufka, don’t rip it into half this time; but again soak it to the milky mixture. Spread it carefully as it is the last layer. Tuck the corners under the whole yufka pack as if you are making a bed.
- Cut the borek – now we call it – to square pieces in the size you plan to serve.
- Pour all the remaining milky mixture evenly – especially on the cut lines.
- Cover the tray with aluminum folio and keep it in the fridge so the yufka absorbs the milky mixture for about half an hour. You can do all this the day before, to make it even better.
- When you are ready to cook, remove the aluminum folio.
- Cook in preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes until both sides are brownish. If the bottom is not ready lower the tray level in the oven and do the vise versa if the top is not ready.
- Serve after it cools for a while.
Filling
- Chrush or grate the cheese and mix with chopped parsley. Spread it all in the middle layer.
Notes
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