Khachapuri- a national Georgian dish, which is a flatbread with cheese. Single recipe khachapuri does not exist, because There are many different types of this dish. For example, Adjarian khachapuri is an open, boat-shaped khachapuri topped with an egg; Megrelian khachapuri is a closed round flatbread stuffed with cheese and sprinkled with cheese on top.
Today I suggest you prepare one of the most common types of khachapuri - closed khachapuri in Imeretian style. Although traditionally, yeast-free dough with matsoni (a fermented milk drink of Georgian and Armenian cuisines) is used to prepare this dish, and Imeretian chkinti-kveli cheese is used for the filling, I offer you a slightly less traditional option - khachapuri in Imeretian style from yeast dough with suluguni cheese.
And a little more about cooking traditions. Closed khachapuri made from yeast-free dough (matsoni) is often fried in a frying pan on both sides, but if the pie is made from yeast or puff pastry, then it is baked. So we won’t break tradition here; we’ll bake khachapuri in the oven.
If you usually close a recipe as soon as you see the phrase “yeast dough,” don’t rush to do so now. Believe me dough for khachapuri- very simple and does not require any special skills, knowledge or time from you. The only thing you need to do is knead it well.
Ingredients
For the test
- flour 210 g
- water 125 g
- dry yeast 3-4 g (1 teaspoon) (or 10-12 g live)
- vegetable oil 10 g (3/4 tbsp)
- sugar 2 g (1/3 teaspoon)
- salt 2 g (1/3 teaspoon)
For filling
- sulguni cheese 300 - 350 g
- chicken egg 1 PC
- flour 1/2 tbsp. spoons
- butter 20
Preparation
First, let's prepare the dough. That's all we need for this. 
Pour warm water (about 30°C) into a bowl in which it will be convenient to knead the dough. The water should not be cold, because... Yeast needs a warm environment to work, but it shouldn’t be very hot water either, because... at 50°C yeast stops its vital activity. Pour the yeast into the water and stir until it is completely dissolved. Add sugar and salt. 
Pour in vegetable oil and stir until sugar and salt dissolve. 
Add sifted flour. Please note that due to the fact that the quality of flour may vary, you may need a little more or less of it than indicated in the ingredients. It’s better to start with 190-200 grams first, and then, if necessary, add more. 
Now the most important thing is to knead the dough well, this usually takes about 10 minutes. Mix first with a fork or a mixer (with a hook attachment), and then you will have to knead with your hands (or you can use a food processor if you have a special dough attachment). If it is not convenient for you to knead the dough in a bowl, then do it on a table sprinkled with flour. As a result, the dough should completely stop sticking to your hands, but remain soft and pliable. 
Place the well-kneaded dough back into the bowl, lightly sprinkle with flour and cover with a towel or napkin. Leave it to rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes. 
While the dough is rising, prepare the filling. Three suluguni cheese on a coarse grater. 
Place the cheese in a bowl and beat the egg into it. 
Add half a tablespoon of flour and mix everything thoroughly. It is best to mix the filling with your hands, so it will definitely be homogeneous, the flour and egg will be evenly distributed throughout the filling, and there will be no lumps of flour left anywhere. We form a ball from the resulting mass; it should be quite dense and hold its shape well. Do not put it in the refrigerator; if it cools too much, it can become very hard, and then it will be quite difficult to shape the khachapuri. 
In 30-40 minutes, the dough should have approximately doubled in size. We put it on a sheet of parchment lightly sprinkled with flour, we will form the khachapuri on it, and bake on it. If you do not use baking paper when forming, then the finished khachapuri will be quite difficult to transfer to a baking sheet; it can become very deformed. 
Using your hands, flatten the dough into a circle with a diameter of approximately 20 cm, trying to make the shape as even as possible. Since the dough should be very soft and pliable, this will be very easy to do, but if you really can’t do it with your hands, use a rolling pin. 
Place a cheese ball in the center of our flatbread. Carefully gather the free edges of the dough around the cheese and pinch. We carefully seal the dough at the place of assembly so that there are no holes left anywhere where cheese can leak out later. Lightly sprinkle flour on top and turn over, sealed side down. 
Again, with our hands, we begin to flatten our workpiece into a flat cake. Because The cheese is soft and is well distributed between the two salts of the dough. Do it carefully so that the dough does not tear. Again, if you can’t do it with your hands, use a rolling pin. 
As a result, we should get the most round and uniformly thick cake with a diameter of approximately 30 cm. 
Together with the parchment, transfer the khachapuri to an inverted baking sheet (it is more convenient to bake on a baking sheet turned upside down, as the sides do not interfere). In the center of the flatbread, pinch off a piece of dough so that hot steam can escape and the dough does not swell. Place the tray with khachapuri in the oven preheated to maximum for 10-15 minutes. Readiness is determined by appearance; as soon as the khachapuri is beautifully browned, it is ready. 
Grease the finished khachapuri with a piece of butter and eat immediately while it is hot. 
Imeretian khachapuri - step-by-step recipe preparing one of the varieties of khachapuri, a melt-in-your-mouth pie with cheese filling. Khachapuri is the most famous traditional national dish of Georgia. Imeruli khachapuri is a round flatbread stuffed with Imeretian cheese, the most delicious pie recipe. If you have never baked khachapuri before, I highly recommend starting with this option.
Imeretian khachapuri - step-by-step recipe
Ingredients
- 200 grams of dough for khachapuri (see),
- flour - for additional kneading of the dough.
First you should prepare the dough using the link above. It will be enough to prepare three imeruli khachapuri.
Filling ingredients
- 2 eggs (1 yolk for brushing khachapuri, optional),
- 30 g butter,
- 600 g Imeretian cheese (can be replaced with Feta or Mozzarella cheeses).
Preparation
Grate the cheese. Add one egg and 20 g butter.
Mix the ingredients.
Knead the finished dough before use. Leave for 10 minutes.
Divide the dough into three parts, roll out a round cake from each. Place a third of the filling in the middle of the cake.
Wrap the filling in the dough.
Compact with your hands.
Turn over and knead with your hands, maintaining a round shape.
Roll out carefully with a rolling pin.
This is what imeruli should look like before baking in the oven.
Lightly sprinkle a baking tray with flour. Bake khachapuri in a preheated oven at medium temperature for about 15 minutes.
If you want to brush the khachapuri with yolk for a golden crust, you need to do this 5 minutes before it’s ready.
Grease the finished imeruli with butter as soon as you take it out of the oven. Butter will soften the dough and make khachapuri more appetizing and attractive.
Cut the imeruli khachapuri and serve immediately. Bon appetit!
Georgian cuisine is one of the most ancient cuisines in the world. The most famous homemade Georgian dish is khachapuri. Khachapuri is nothing more than a flatbread with cheese. Imeretian-style khachapuri is very popular; this article will give its recipe with photos.
Varieties of khachapuri
Georgian cuisine, and with it khachapuri, has its own regional varieties. Adjarian, Rachin, Mingrelian, Imeretian and other khachapuri are known. They are all united by a common traditional recipe, rooted in ancient times. And their differences are only in individual details. Most often they differ in shape. Flatbreads come in round and boat-shaped, open and closed. Khachapuri is called Imeruli in Imeretian.
Khachapuri in Imeretian style - real recipe with photos
Imeruli is so loved by chefs all over the world that there are no longer any number of existing varieties of this pastry. It is very difficult to find a real one among all the variety of recipes. However, in 2010, Georgia received a patent for khachapuri as its national dish, and now it has become easier to understand the technology of traditional preparation.
Dough
A classic homemade recipe involves making matsoni dough. Matsoni is a Georgian fermented milk product. No yeast is used when preparing the dough.
Here's how to prepare the dough step by step:
- Mix half a liter of matsoni and 3 raw eggs in a bowl.
- Gradually add 900 grams of flour into this mixture.
- Knead the dough, cover with a napkin and let rest for 30 minutes.
- The dough is ready.
Flour, or rather the correct amount of it, is of great importance in preparing tasty and tender dough. This is the most important condition. It is impossible to give exact grams. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce flour in small portions. After all, if there is not enough of it, the dough will turn out liquid. And if you overdo it, it will lose its softness and become tough.
The complexity of this completely simple recipe is that outside the Caucasus region matsoni is almost impossible to get. In this case, you have to look for its analogues.
Tip: “If you cannot use matsoni, replace it with low-fat kefir.”
It is absolutely not permissible to cook imeruli with yeast, shortbread or puff pastry, as many try. Pies made with this dough have to be baked in the oven. Such baked goods have nothing in common with real imeruls and cannot be called that. Real Georgian flatbreads are cooked in a frying pan, not in the oven.
Filling
The dough for imeruli is very tender. And the filling matches it. Only brined Imeretian cheese goes into real Georgian flatbreads.
It is the most common in Georgia. It accounts for about 80% of total production.
An important condition is that it is soft enough that it can be kneaded with your hands without resorting to a knife, grater, fork or spoon. It also matters that it be real. The cheese on the shelves differs significantly from the strict Georgian recipe.
Similar to the situation with dough, there are a large number of variations of fillings found in the world. They use a variety of cheeses, and also add boiled eggs, chicken, meat, fish, and sausages. Season with salt, pepper, and various spices. This is not entirely true. For example, flatbreads with meat, according to the rules, should be called kubdari. And lobiani are flatbreads with beans. The same applies to other variations of fillings. Not all bread flatbreads, even those containing cheese, are worthy of being called the ancient name “khachapuri”. Most of them would be better called pies.
Recipe
Preparation with photo:
- Divide the dough into 8 equal parts. You will end up with 4 flatbreads.
- For one flatbread you need to roll out 2 pieces of dough.
- Place the filling on one part, not reaching a couple of centimeters to the edges.
Tip: “To keep the filling from being too loose, you can add one raw egg.”
- Cover with the second part on top.
- Seal the edges.
- It is necessary to fry the flatbreads in a highly heated frying pan, without greasing it with either vegetable or butter, under a lid on both sides.
Khachapuri in Imeretian and Megrelian - the difference
Imereti is a historical region of Western Georgia, in the basin of the middle reaches of the Rioni River and its tributaries. The center of this region is the city of Kutaisi. To the west of Imereti is Megrelia.
Each of these regions has its own recipe for making flatbreads. There is a legend that every Georgian housewife has her own unique recipe. True, their differences are not so significant. The main difference is that khachapuri in Imeretian style is flatbread in the form of a round closed pie with a lot of cheese inside. And there is even more cheese in Megrelian flatbreads, because it is located not only inside, but also outside. Before frying, megruli are brushed with egg yolk on top and sprinkled with cheese. The dough for Imeretian and Megrelian khachapuri is absolutely no different.
How to replace Imeretian cheese in khachapuri
Many people have never heard of the existence of cheese from Imereti in their lives, especially if they have never been to Georgia. Indeed, this cheese is practically never found outside the Caucasus. Therefore, a reasonable question arises - what can replace this cheese in pies.
The second most popular cheese in Georgia is suluguni cheese. This fact even served as the basis for a long-lived myth that the real Imeruli include the Suluguni. But that's not true. Cheese from Imereti and Suluguni are not quite similar in taste, however, the first serves as a raw material basis for the second. Although, as an analogue to the scarce cheese from Imereti, suluguni is perfect. In addition to it, you can also find the preparation of flatbreads with feta cheese, with Adyghe cheese, with mozzarella, with ordinary Russian cheese, and even with processed cheese!
Changing the type of cheese practically does not lead to changes in the recipe. You just need to grate hard cheeses on a fine grater, and if the cheese is not salty, then add salt to the filling.
Thus, given that Imeruli has a history of more than four thousand years, it is necessary to respect and honor the real traditional recipe for Imeretian khachapuri. Real Imeruli are flatbreads, the dough of which is aged in matsoni (you can use kefir), and the filling consists of only soft cheese from Imereti. The step-by-step homemade recipe is so simple that anyone can prepare it. It does not require any special preparation and does not take much time. And the finished cheese imeruli have such a unique and inimitable taste that anyone who tried them will confidently say that it was worth it.
In a large bowl, combine warm milk, yeast, sugar, salt, 2 tbsp. l. flour and 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, place in a warm place for 20 minutes. Then add room temperature matsoni, melted and cooled butter and an egg, stir and start kneading, adding flour. Towards the end, pour vegetable oil onto your hand from time to time. Knead until the dough stops sticking to your hands.
Roll the dough into a ball, coat with oil, place in a clean bowl, cover with a towel and place in a warm place to rise for 2 hours. After an hour, punch down the dough.
For the filling, grate the cheese on a coarse grater, add softened butter. Preheat oven to 200°C.
Divide the risen dough into parts based on the desired size of khachapuri. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and flatten it onto a floured work surface into a small flat cake. Divide the filling into portions too, so that each flatbread contains approximately equal amounts of dough and cheese. Form the filling into a ball and place it in the middle of the flatbread.
Gently gather the edges of the dough over the filling, like a knapsack, and carefully fasten it into a knot, then turn the cake over, seam side down, and knead it with your hands into a cake about 1.5 cm thick (you can do this directly on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Brush the surface with beaten egg, make neat holes for steam to escape.
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