Gibanica with cheese is a traditional Serbian pastry dish. But you can also call it Serbian cheese pie. It is simple and so versatile! You can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and in between. And so, it goes with pretty much any food! In the video and pictures I serve it with yogurt, prosciutto and ajvar and with sugar for dessert!
Probably every household has a variation of the gibanica with cheese recipe. In my family my grandma, mom and my dad make/made each their own version.
Recipe I am sharing today is my fathers traditional gibanica recipe. I did add my own “touch” to it – just a spoonful of ricotta cheese. One time I was making cheese filled Serbian gibanica I had some ricotta over and I wandered how it would taste in gibanica. So, I added a small amount and was very happy with the result. Ricotta adds more creaminess to gibanica. If you don´t have ricotta you can use plain yoghurt instead.
Since this is gibanica recipe in English and I assume not many of you have “oriental” type of store near you where you can find sheets of dough for gibanica, you can use phyllo dough. Phyllo dough is used in Greece for pitas and is similar to the one for gibanica.
And since I am using store bought sheets of dough for this recipe, this is easy gibanica recipe. Other variant is with home-made sheets of dough which I have to admit is a million times better!
You can serve this traditional Serbian food with yogurt which is the most popular way. With cold cuts and condiments, as a side to main coarse or as a dinner. Warm or cold. But it tastes especially irresistible while warm. When the outside is crispy and the inside is fluffy and the filling is warm.
For more food inspo, check out my Instagram and Pinterest pages!
Gibanica
Course: Appetizers, Breakfast, Savory dishes, Serbian recipes, Vegeterian6
servings1
hour10
minutesIngredients
1 packet of dough for gibanica/pite
250 gr cottage cheese
250 gr crème fraiche
2 tbsp ricotta or 100 gr plain yogurt
2 eggs
200 ml olive oil
100 ml carbonated water
salt
Process
- In a medium size bowl combine cheese, crème fraiche, ricotta, eggs and salt.
- In a smaller bowl combine oil and water.
- Spread three tablespoons of oil mixture over bottom of 25 cm round pan.
- Cover with one sheet of dough. Sprinkle over with two tablespoons of oil mixture. Cover with another layer of dough. Then sprinkle over with two more tablespoons of oil mixture and two to three tablespoons or cheese mixture. Cover with a sheet of dough. Then continue until you have used up all of the filling and all the sheets of dough.
- Finish with a sheet of dough. Sprinkle over with some more oil mixture.
- Bake in the preheated oven at 180 °C until golden brown. This takes 45-50 minutes.
- Enjoy while warm or cold!
Recipe Video
For more Serbian recipes check out links bellow!
Pepper, onion and tomato stew – Sataras
Serbian cornbread with cottage cheese
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