Börek Chronicles #4: Kırma Börek / Pleated Börek

or: how to feed a crowd with a frugal filling becomes an exercise in the opposite

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Recently, I’ve noticed a growing interest in Turkish and Balkan pastries on Instagram. It’s actually quite satisfying to finally see them getting the recognition they deserve. The world of pastry in this part of the world, both savory and sweet, is incredibly vast. Pastries are a staple of daily diets, but some, due to the skill, effort, and time required to make them, are reserved for special occasions like religious feasts and celebrations.

Photos courtesy of İlknur Çelik

Savory pastries generally fall under the category of böreks or breakfast pastries. Sweet pastries, however, are harder to define within a single category. If you must classify them, you could say they’re either with syrup or without, but even that feels like an oversimplification.

As I mentioned in a previous post, böreks come in many varieties: dough made with or without fat, store-bought or hand-rolled, oven-baked or skillet-cooked. The easiest versions are always made with ready-made filo pastry.

Since all these regions were once under the control of Ottoman Empire, the customs and culinary traditions of different religions and geographies have blended together. The Greek pita, Albanian pastries, and Turkish böreks often overlap, with everyone claiming to be the original creator. It’s human nature what we often forget is that the origin of these foods isn’t rooted in race, but in geography. You cook with what your environment provides.

Over the coming months, I’d like to share some of savory and sweet doughs and pastries with you, today I’ll add one of my childhood favorites Kırma Börek to theses Börek Chronicles.

This idea originates from times of poverty, using a minimal amount of filling to feed hungry members of family, still being tasty, pleasing, and nourishing. With just two or three sheets of filo and a small amount of filling, you can bake an entire oven tray of börek. The richness of this börek comes from a mixture of yogurt, egg, and milk, which are plentiful in the region, even in more modest households. The result is a dish that’s soft underneath and crispy on top—a very satisfying bite.