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Grandma's Bulgarian Feta-Stuffed Flatbreads
My Baba's traditional debeli kori — soft homemade yeast flatbreads filled with crumbled feta, folded like an envelope, and baked until lightly golden.
Serves
6-8
Time
2 hrs
My Baba's traditional debeli kori — soft homemade yeast flatbreads filled with crumbled feta, folded like an envelope, and baked until lightly golden.
Instructions
Activate the Yeast
- 1
In a deep bowl or large measuring cup, combine the lukewarm milk or water, yeast, honey, and a little oil.
- 2
Stir and let the yeast activate until foamy. My grandmother often used water, but when she had fresh buffalo milk, she used that instead. Both milk and water work well.
Make the Dough
- 1
Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt.
- 2
Pour in the activated yeast mixture and add the 2 eggs.
- 3
Mix and knead until a soft, smooth dough forms. Add the flour gradually — the exact amount varies depending on the brand, so don't add too much at once.
- 4
Cover the dough and let it rise until doubled in size. You can use my warm-oven method: warm the oven very briefly, turn it completely off, then place the covered dough inside. The oven should only be gently warm — be careful not to start baking the dough before it rises.
Divide and Roll
- 1
Once the dough has risen, divide it into several balls. The number of pieces depends on how large you want your flatbreads — they don't need to be equal or perfectly shaped.
- 2
Take one dough ball at a time and roll it into a thin sheet.
Brush and Fill
- 1
Traditionally, my Baba brushed the dough with homemade pork lard. If you have good-quality lard, you can use it.
- 2
I use a mixture of equal parts melted butter and oil. Brush one side of the rolled dough generously.
- 3
Sprinkle plenty of crumbled feta cheese over the surface.
Fold Like an Envelope
- 1
Fold the dough inward from the sides, like an envelope, so the cheese is enclosed inside.
- 2
Gently roll the folded dough again into a flatbread. Don't roll it too thin — you want the cheese to stay inside.
- 3
Repeat with the remaining dough.
Bake
- 1
Arrange the flatbreads on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- 2
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through and lightly golden. They don't need to become very dark — I like them soft, with just a little golden color on top.
Toti’s Tips
- ✓Add the flour gradually rather than all at once, since flour brands absorb liquid differently and you want a soft dough, not a dry, stiff one.
- ✓Use room-temperature feta so it crumbles and spreads evenly instead of clumping in cold chunks that tear the dough as you fold it.
- ✓Traditional pork lard or the butter-and-oil mix both work to brush the dough, since the fat's job is simply to create separation between the folded layers so they stay flaky.
- ✓Fold the dough like an envelope before rolling it out again, since this traps the cheese inside multiple layers instead of letting it spill out during baking.
- ✓Don't roll the folded dough too thin, or the cheese pushes through the dough and leaks out in the oven.
- ✓If speeding up the rise in a warm oven, keep the oven only gently warm, since too much heat starts baking the dough instead of just helping it rise.
- ✓Bake just until lightly golden rather than deeply browned, since these flatbreads are meant to stay soft rather than crisp.
- ✓Serve them warm and fresh, since the folded layers and melted cheese are best right out of the oven before they firm up.
Storage
- •Best served warm, just as they are, or with plain Bulgarian yogurt on the side.
- •Leftovers can be reheated gently in the oven the next day.
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