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Chebureks with cheese

Cheese Chebureki (Fried Turnovers)

Forgive me, cheburek purists — I'm giving away the recipe! Juicy chebureki: crispy fried turnovers with a molten cheese filling. I've loved cheese chebureki since childhood. My mom never made them, but we had a weekend tradition: after running errands around town, we'd buy cheese chebureki from a little stall downtown. I can still taste that wonderful pastry.

Maria

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Sunflower oil

Flour

350

Water

200

Eggs (large)

Salt

0.5

Hard cheese

250

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 23 % 12 g

Fats 28 % 15 g

Carbohydrates 49 % 26 g

284 kcal

GI: 0 / 0 / 100

Cooking method

Step 1:

The dough. To make the dough for the chebureki, you'll need flour, clean drinking water, an egg, and salt.
Step 2:

Crack the egg into a deep bowl. Add the salt. Whisk until smooth.
Step 3:

Pour in the water and mix again.
Step 4:

Sift the flour and add it to the egg mixture.
Step 5:

Knead a soft, elastic dough, adding a little more flour if needed. Knead for at least 7 minutes, until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. Let it rest for 10 minutes.
Step 6:

The filling. For the cheburek filling you'll need cheese — any firm cheese works (a mild yellow cheese like Gouda, Edam, or Havarti; you can also use low-moisture mozzarella, the pizza kind).
Step 7:

Grate the cheese on the coarse side of a box grater.
Step 8:

Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.
Step 9:

Roll each ball out into an oval that isn't too thin. Keep the counter and rolling pin well dusted with flour, or the dough may tear.
Step 10:

Spread the cheese filling over the lower half of the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch (1 cm) border around the edge.
Step 11:

Fold the other half of the dough over the filling to form a half-moon. Seal the edges by pressing with a fork. The cheburek should be no wider than the skillet you'll fry it in. My first one was too big, so the edges curled up a bit — I rolled the rest out smaller.
Step 12:

Heat the sunflower oil in a skillet and fry the chebureki on both sides until golden brown.
Step 13:

Set the finished chebureki on a paper towel to blot off the excess oil, then serve right away while they're hot. Enjoy!

The key here is getting the dough right. At first it sticks hard to your hands while you knead, and the temptation is to add lots of flour to fix that. Resist it — just keep kneading. If you do add flour, add only a little at a time. Better yet, simply dip your palms in a bowl of flour and keep working the dough. The dough for chebureki should stay soft; too much flour makes it stiff, and it'll turn hard when fried. If you can use a stand mixer with a dough hook, go for it — it kneads the dough well and you may not need any extra flour. Machine kneading takes about 7 minutes too. You can also mix some chopped fresh herbs into the filling.