Khachapuri

• servings: 4 loaves, serves 3-4
• active time: 25 minutes
• total time: 2 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

Dough:

2¾ cups bread flour (can use all-purpose too, but bread flour is ideal

1 cup milk

3 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tsp instant yeast (add more for a more yeasty flavor)

1½ tsp sugar

1½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground coriander

Filling:

2 cups mozzarella / muenster, shredded

½ cup ricotta cheese

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

1 large egg

2 tbsp flour

2-4 tbsp chopped herbs (not traditional, but parsley and chives are good)

1 tsp ground black pepper

½ tsp salt

Your choice of other spices (I love topping with aleppo pepper and thyme)

Toppings:

Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water)

4 large eggs, cold from the fridge

4 tsp butter, separated into 1 tsp sections

Directions

Add the milk and 3 tbsp butter to a small saucepan, and heat until the butter is melted and the milk has warmed up.

In a large bowl, add the sugar, coriander, and 1½ tsp salt and pour the hot milk over it, stirring to dissolve and disperse everything. Allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm, so as not to kill the yeast, about 100-110 F.

Add the 2¾ cups flour and the yeast. Stir to combine until a shaggy mass forms, then cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

After the dough is rested, knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes with a mixer or 8-10 minutes by hand. If the dough is too sticky, add in a little bit of flour as needed. Place it into a greased large bow and let it rise for 1-1½ hours, or until it increases in size by about ⅓.

Combine all of the filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix to combine. Don’t overmix once the eaten is beaten in, as we want some heterogeneity.

Lay the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into four equal pieces, about 150g each. Roll each piece into an oval shape, about 10” long and 6” wide. Cover each of the pieces and let them rise for 15 minutes.

Spoon one quarter of the cheese mixture into the center of each of these, and spread it around evenly, leaving about a 1” gap on all the edges. Pull up the dough’s edges around the cheese, then fold and twist the ends to form a boat shape. The overall shape is not very important, as long as no cheese will spill out during baking. The recipe photo really helps here. Once filled, cover and let rise for 20 minutes, or until puffy but not quite doubled in size. While the loaves rise, preheat the oven to 375 F.

We’ll first pre-bake the loaves before adding the egg on top. Brush the exposed edges of the khachapuri with egg wash and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the bread feels just set. At this point, they will not have browned and the filling will have just melted.

Remove the khachapuri from the oven and use the back of a spoon to make an egg-sized indentation in the middle of the filling. Crack an egg into each of the indentations, and add 1 tsp of butter on top, along with any final spices you desire. Bake for an additional 8-10 minutes for soft set eggs, or 12-15 minutes for firmer eggs. The crust will brown during this bake.

Remove from the oven, garnish with any additional fresh herbs, then serve. To enjoy khachapuri, the traditional eating style is to tear off pieces of the bread, starting from the twisted ends, then dip them into the cheese and egg filling in the center!

Notes

As the national dish of Georgia, this cheese filled bread with an egg is a great breakfast or lunch dish. Great to share with others. Dough is formed into a boat shaped and filled with cheese and herbs. This dish is also fairly easy to prepare but has a lot of inactive time, so great for a stay-in or work from home day. The traditional cheeses to use here are imeruli and sulguni, but they’re very difficult to find in the US. Some more commonly available ones are provided here, but feel free to change these around as needed. The goal is to have a mix of salty and melty cheese for the right texture and flavor. To reheat these, just place them in a hot oven or airfryer until crispy on the bottom