Bulgaria
Photo: Sheku80, CC BY-SA 3.0, croppedBanitsa
баница
/ˈbanit͡sɐ/BAH-nee-tsah
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- Taste
- SavoryRich
- Made with
- Wheat & flourEggDairy & cheese
History
Banitsa is a pie of thin sheets of filo pastry layered or rolled with a mixture of eggs, yogurt and crumbled white brined cheese, sirene, then baked until golden. It is Bulgaria's best-loved breakfast, sold warm in bakeries and kiosks every morning and eaten with ayran or boza, a thick fermented grain drink. Versions use spinach, leeks, pumpkin with sugar or milk custard. On New Year's Eve and at Christmas families bake a special banitsa with small lucky charms hidden inside: coins, a twig of dogwood for health, or folded notes with wishes for the coming year, and whoever finds each one takes its fortune. Thin pastry pies spread across the Balkans under the Ottomans, but banitsa with sirene is distinctly Bulgarian.
Sources
