Feta Cheese & Sour Cream Boorekas

These scrumptious feta cheese filled puff triangles, are a traditional street food in Israel, my home country. The best ones will be sold out of a cart or a tiny bakery and will be accompanied by a boiled egg and pickles. Also they are a big part of any celebration and are consumed over the weekend by the kilos. They come in many shapes and fillings like potato, mushroom, and even eggplant, but the most popular ones are the feta cheese or feta cheese & spinach. They are also recognizable with other nationalities such as Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans. 

What I love about them, is that they are very quick and easy to make, suits any occasion and are versatile. I made them yesterday for a light weekend lunch accompanied with fresh vegetables and herbs. 

When it comes to pastry I'm more of a "make it yourself" kind of person, there is nothing like a home made fresh pastry. But when it's puff pastry we are talking about, it's a laborious way to make something very simple. Sure you can't argue with the beautiful crisp outcome of a thousand layers of heaven, but it can be challenging making it work and creating those gorges layers of buttered pastry. So I use good quality store bought puff pastry sheets with butter and take them out of the freezer to defrost 5 minutes before I start.

  

Cut every sheet into 4 equal squares with a sharp knife. Cut into 9 squares if you fancy, for even smaller party snacks. You will get a mountain of them.

 Mix the Feta cheese with the sour cream and black paper. Make sure the mixture is not too runny or it will be impossible to seal the triangles. Also not too dry or it won't be as pleasant to eat.

 Place a table spoon of the filling in the center of each pastry square.

Fold each square to create a triangle and press edges with fingertips to seal it properly. If the triangles are not sealed well the filling will ooze out of the pastry during baking time.

Press the edges with a fork to create a nice pattern. It's not a must but it looks nice, it take no time and it help making sure the triangles are sealed properly.

Place triangles on the prepared tray lined with parchment paper. You can place them close to each other but not touching because they do tend to stick to one another. Placing them in a square shape will save some room on the tray for baking more at a time.

Beat together egg yolk and milk for a nice wash.

Brush triangles with the egg yolk mixture.

Sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds, and pop into the preheated oven.

These are best straight out of the oven.

Warning! Do not blink or turn your back on them, they will be gone within seconds.

Feta & Sour Cream Boorekas

Wonderful option for a light meal or entertainment.

Makes 16 prep: 20min cook: 15min 

Ingredients: 

4 sheet       Puff pastry defrosted
1                Egg yolk
1 tbs          Milk
2 tbs          Poppy seeds or sesame seeds

For the filling:

200 gr        Feta cheese (Greek or danish style)

1/2 cup      Sour cream
A sprinkle of black pepper


Preparation: 

Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan forced. Line a baking try with baking parchment.
Cut pastry sheets with a sharp knife into 4 equal squares.  

In a medium size bawl break the feta cheese and mash it with a fork. Mix in the sour cream and a sprinkle of black paper. 

Place a table spoon of the filling in the center of each pastry square.

Fold each square to create a triangle and press edges with fingertips to seal it properly.

Press the edges with a fork to create a nice pattern and place on the prepared tray (you might be able to fit 4 -6 at a time depending on the size of your baking tray).

Make the egg wash by beating the egg yolk and milk in a small bawl.

Brush triangles with the egg yolk mixture and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

Pop into the oven and bake in batches for 15-20 minutes or until golden. 

When golden I like to turn them to the other side and bake for 5 more minuets to crisp them up even more.  

As I said before once they are out of the oven keep an eye on them...

Notes:
1. You can try and play a little with filling, try Ricotta instead of cream cheese or make mash potato's and use that for a filling. 
2. In my old oven it took about 15 min to bake. The baking time might change with your oven.
3. Unfortunately like any other puff pastry products its not the same the next day. 
4. Freezing in not recommended.


I would love to know what you think about my new blog, what you would love to see here and if you bake any of the recipes I put up here please share your experience with me. Looking forward to hearing from you.

My Mini Cupcakes La Blanche

Hi Everyone, my name is Ilanit and I love baking. Welcome to my new blog, a place that will be all about the love of baking. Some recipes are my own and some are a family secret, but also I will include a lot of favorite recipes I collected along the years from known chefs and cooks. In every recipe you will be able to find the original source if there is one. All recipes have been tried successfully by myself and tasted by my loved ones. I will try to post my creations, my passion and my love as often as I can. 

So, for a little starter I'm posting one of my favorite cupcakes recipe. The Little cupcake above was one of 50 mini white chocolate and orange cupcakes, I made for a dear friend for her engagement party. They were devoured with there dark chocolate friends by a pack of hungry guests.
Now the recipe dose make a LOT of cupcakes! (100 mini cupcakes or 50 regular size). But it can be easily halved and make 50 mini cupcakes or 25 regular size. Just do the math right and you'll get there. Plus you can never have too many cupcakes! But if you do want to save some for later they are very much freezable. Freeze them as they are and apply icing after defrosted.  

Mini Cupcakes La Blanche

White Chocolate & orange mini cupcakes. Great for Parties and entertainment.

Makes 100 prep: 20min cook: 15min +decorating time

For the cakes: 

450 gr (3 cups)        Self raising flour 

250 gr (1 1/4 cups)  Raw sugar

185 gr (1 1/4 cups)  White chocolate bits

325ml (1 1/4 cups)  Milk

250 gr         Butter

4                 Eggs
1 tsp           Vanilla extract
orange zest from 2 oranges

For the frosting:

200 gr                   White chocolate roughly chopped

265 gr (1/2 cup)    Cream
Sprinkles or lollies, to decorate

Preparation: 

Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan forced. Grease a 12 x mini cupcake tray or line holes with paper cases. (If you have two trays, the baking process will be quicker since you can bake two trays at a time).

Sift flour and caster sugar in a bowl. Stir in the chocolate bits. Make a well in the center.

Melt butter in the microwave and set a side to cool.

In the meantime beat the eggs is a small bowl using a fork. Zest the oranges.

Add milk, butter, eggs, vanilla and orange zest to the flour mixture.

Using a large metal spoon, stir gently to combine. Be careful not to over stir.

Spoon mixture into prepared muffin pan. (I fond it easier to pipe them into the casings with a large round spout so he chocolate bits can go through. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Stand in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Repeat baking process until the mixture is finished.

To make the frosting:

Place cream and chocolate into a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (Ban-Marie). Stir with a metal spoon until smooth.

Remove from heat. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until a spreadable consistency.

When cooled spread the icing over the cupcakes. You can also use a decorating bag with spar spout to pipe pretty little flowers, and place a little sugar flower or lollies on each one.

Notes:
1. You can use soy milk, I did.
2. In my old oven it took 20 min to bake 2 trays at a time. The baking time might change with your oven, especially if you are cooking one tray at a time.
3. You can use a regular size cupcake tray if you want to, it will make about 50 cupcakes and cooking time might vary. 
4. You can make everything a day before an event and decorate on the day. If you do, take the icing out of the fridge about an hour before you start decorating. It will make the icing more comfortable to use.