Georgian · Bread
Imeruli Khachapuri
- Intermediate
- 40 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a briny, maritime salinity, melting away silken.
Ingredients
- 500 g plain white wheat flour
- 250 g matsoni or full fat natural yoghurt, at room temperature
- 1 egg
- 60 ml warm water
- 7 g instant dried yeast
- 5 g caster sugar
- 8 g fine salt
- 30 g soft butter, plus 30 g for finishing
- 600 g imeruli cheese, or 400 g low moisture mozzarella with 200 g feta
The skills inside
Khachapuri shapingKneading doughProofing: the rise before the oven
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Whisk the yeast and sugar into the warm water until it loosens and foams, then work it into the flour with the matsoni, egg, salt and soft butter and knead 8 minutes, to a smooth ball that is still slightly tacky at the palm. 8 min
- Cover and leave until doubled; meanwhile grate the cheese, taste it, and if it stings with salt cover it in cold water for 20 minutes, then wring it in a cloth until no more liquid runs. 20 min
- Divide dough and cheese in three, flatten each piece of dough to a 22 cm disc, mound the cheese in the centre, gather the edges over it like a purse and pinch the seam shut with no gaps.
- Turn seam down, press out with your palms, then roll gently from the middle to a 25 cm round about 1 cm thick, stopping the moment the dough starts to go translucent over the seam.
- Bake on a stone or steel preheated to 250C (480F) for 12 to 14 minutes, until the top is blistered brown and the base sounds hollow and dry, then brush with butter and rest 5 minutes before cutting. 14 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Kneading dough 57 recipes
- The work changed it: what began shaggy and rough is one smooth, cohesive mass, with nothing raggy hanging off it.
- The surface has gone satin and barely tacky, releasing cleanly from hands and board instead of leaving a trail.
- Worked to the point this dough asks for and no further: springy and elastic where structure is wanted, just brought together where tenderness is.
- Torn or cut open, the inside is uniform: no dry streaks, no unmixed pockets, no core of flour that never met the water.
- After its rest it rolls and shapes without snapping back. A dough that fights the pin needed more rest, not more force.
Where it goes wrong Sticking was fought with flour instead of technique or patience, stroke after stroke, until the dough had taken in far more than the formula asked; it turns tight and dry under the hands, and bakes dense however well everything else goes.
Proofing: the rise before the oven 78 recipes
- Judged on volume against the container rather than on the clock: visibly grown, and grown by roughly the amount the recipe describes.
- The poke test agrees: a floured fingertip pressed a centimetre in leaves a dent that springs back slowly and only part of the way. Straight back means it is not ready; no spring at all means it has gone.
- The surface is domed, smooth, and slightly sheened: not cratered, wrinkled, or collapsed, and not skinned over and dry from proofing uncovered.
- Handled, it feels alive and airy: light for its size, with bubbles visible under the skin.
- It springs in the oven: the piece lifts in the first minutes and the scores open. A shape that does not move at all was proofed past its point before it went in.
Where it goes wrong It was proofed to the clock in a kitchen colder or warmer than the recipe assumed: overproofed, it collapses as the blade touches it and bakes flat and dense with a sour edge; underproofed, it tears at the side and bakes tight.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Grüner Veltliner
- Also Right
- Vermentino or dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Saison
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water with citrus & herbs
The vegetable whisperers: peppery, high-acid whites that flatter greens, roots, and grains without bullying them.
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