Pastry & pies
Gjomleze
A layered batter pie from the Ohrid and Struga lakeside, baked one thin ladleful at a time.
Recipe from Туѓино Јабано
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 2 hr
- Total
- 2 hr 30 min
- Fasting
- Not suitable
Ingredients 6 ingredients
Method
- Whisk the flour, salt, yoghurt and water together until the batter is smooth and about as thick as pancake batter. Let it stand for twenty minutes so the flour hydrates.
- Heat the oven to 220C. Oil a heavy round tin generously and put it in to get properly hot, because the first layer has to meet hot metal or it will stick.
- Ladle in enough batter to cover the base thinly, tilt the tin to spread it, and bake for six to eight minutes until the surface is dry and just freckled with gold.
- Brush the layer with oil, pour on another thin ladleful, and return the tin to the oven. Repeat, oiling each layer as you go.
- Scatter a little crumbled sirenje between every second layer. Keep going until the batter is finished; a tall gjomleze takes fifteen or so layers and the better part of two hours.
- When the last layer has set, take the tin out and cut the whole thing into squares or diamonds, right down to the base.
- Brush the top and the cut edges with the remaining oil and return it to the oven for fifteen minutes, until the crust is a deep red-brown and crisp. Rest it for ten minutes before serving.
If you cannot find it
Substitutions that work outside Macedonia.
- Sirenje
- Firm feta, crumbled, and soaked briefly in cold water if it is very salty. Urda or ricotta salata also work.
- Sač (the domed baking lid)
- A domestic oven at 220C. The layers colour a little faster, so start checking from the sixth one on.
- Kiselo mleko, to serve alongside
- Thick natural yoghurt, loosened with a spoonful of water.
