Ingredients:
for the dough:
1 kg plain flour
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
400 ml lukewarm water (app)
for the filling:
5 eggs, 400 g feta cheese
300 g oil and butter (half each)
Preparation:
Have the flour at room temperature and sieve it in a deep wide dish. Make a well in the middle and put the salt in. Then add the oil, the vinegar and the water. Start kneading for about 20 min. The dough should be quite soft and you will know it is ready when it starts making oil bubbles. Divide it in 7 pieces with the size of a fist each. Brush generously with oil and leave it to rest for 30 minutes somewhere in a warm place.
Meanwhile prepare the filling: crumble the cheese and mix well with the eggs.
Start rolling out the pastry sheets one by one in the following way: place a clean old table cloth on the table. Sprinkle a bit of flour on a wide wooden board (at least 50 x 50 cm) and place 1 dough ball. Make a thick pastry with diameter 40 cm. Place it carefully on the table cloth and start pulling the edges away with your fingertips, aiming at making the pastry as thin as possible. It is easier if you just lift the dough at one point and start walking around the table, while pooling the dough away with your fingertips. The result should be thin, see-through pastry.
When ready, sprinkle the pastry first with oil/butter and then with filling. Lift one side of the table cloth in a way that the pastry starts
rolling until it becomes a long thin roll. Have a shallow and wide baking form at hand, buttered and floured. Place carefully one end of the roll in the middle and arrange it in a spiral. With the next ready roll continue the spiral till the form is full. Brush each ‘banitsa’ with oil/butter and bake at 180 Celsius in a preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.
