Borek Recipe In 15 Minutes - Turkish Food Travel (2024)

FAQs

Is borek Greek or Turkish food? ›

The English name borek comes from Turkish börek (Turkish pronunciation: [bœˈɾec]), while burek is the form used in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

The burek – and its alternative spelling borek – is a Turkish, Middle Eastern and East European pastry often eaten as a snack from a small food stall or street vendor. In one of its forms, phyllo-like dough is rolled into a long tube which is then overlapped and coiled beside or around itself.

Eaten at breakfast, lunch or any time throughout the day as a snack, there really isn't a bad time to eat börek.

Two main things differentiate a borek from a boureka: Size: Borek are significantly larger, often 9-12 inches in size. Sometimes they will be cut into pieces, sliced lengthwise for sauces to be added. Dough: Borek typically use yufka; bourekas an oily short dough, similar to empanadas.

Borek dough is just about twice as thick with a #9 thickness. Next, where baklava uses butter between the layers, borek uses a combination of eggs and milk. Brushing an egg & milk mixture on each sheet of borek dough will soften the dough and create a more substantial foundation for the savory fillings.

For the role that weighs around 80 grams, we can observe that 194 calories are contained from 14 grams of fat, 10 grams of carbs as well as eight grams of protein. This is not ideal in any way to be within a healthy range of macronutrients since the fat content is higher than that of any macronutrient.

Börek is just an essential part of life in Turkey. They are made for any occasion and they can be eaten in any time of the day. For the most part, a börek is a salty dish. However, I have seen sweet versions once or twice, though not very common at all.

Borek, a type of savory pastry that originated during the Ottoman era, is a highly customizable and versatile dish that is commonly enjoyed both at meals and for snacks.

Turkish borek and Greek spanakopita come from the same family of pastry. However, the two often differ in preparation and texture, with Greek spanakopita often having a flakier, puffier crust. Is it burek or borek? Both spellings of this pastry are technically correct, depending on the country.

Is borek Armenian or Turkish? ›

All About Borek

They're usually triangle-shaped, although tray-style boreks, baked in a pan and then cut into squares, are also common. They're beloved by Armenians, but are equally prized throughout the countries that were once a part of the Ottoman Empire, such as Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, and Serbia.

Burek, or pita, is a pie made with phyllo dough. Think layers of parchment paper-thin, flaky dough, stuffed with delicious fillings, shaped into different forms.

Types of Borek

It involves phyllo pastry and some type of filling, like a spiced meat and onion mixture, spinach and cheese, or just plain cheese. In Turkey, they brush the pastry with yogurt and egg.

Polish and Jewish (from Poland): habitational name from Borek so named with Polish bór 'pine forest' + the diminutive suffix -ek. As a Jewish name it could sometimes also be from a Polonized form of the Yiddish personal name Borukh.

The Greek version of Turkish börek is known as "tiropita." Tiropita is a traditional Greek pastry made with layers of phyllo dough filled with a mixture of various cheeses, such as feta cheese, and sometimes other ingredients like herbs or spinach.

Some dishes are virtually the same within the two countries, while others radically differ. Both the Greeks and Turks have a delicious chicken soup they make, both with a bit of lemon, but the Turks add a bit of yoghurt (a Turkish invention) to theirs and use only egg yolks, while the Greeks use whole eggs.

While borek is a traditional component of Turkish cuisine, today it is beloved throughout the entire world, and Americans are sure to appreciate the deep flavors and delicate texture of these pastries.

Although the dessert became quite popular through various Greek restaurants, and there is no way to pinpoint where it originated, it is said that the baklava sweet came from modern day Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) and was modernized in today's Greece.