Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Banitsa
Coiled phyllo layered with tangy white cheese and egg, baked into a golden spiral, Bulgaria’s breakfast and New Year charm.
Bulgarian · medium · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 40 min
~701 cal · 26g protein · 46g carbs · 46g fat · 2g fiber · 4g sugars · 28g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Banitsa is Bulgaria's everyday pastry and its most charged piece of ritual food at once: a coil of filo layered with a batter of eggs, thick Bulgarian yogurt, and crumbled sirene, the country's brined white cheese, baked until golden. On any ordinary morning it is simply breakfast, eaten warm with a glass of ayran or boza.
On New Year's Eve it becomes fortune-telling. Bakers tuck small charms and slips of paper bearing written wishes (health, luck, love) into the coils before baking, and each person reads the year ahead in whatever their slice contains. A coin is sometimes hidden too, promising prosperity to whoever finds it, and a budding dogwood twig may stand in for the paper fortunes in older versions.
What makes it unmistakably Bulgarian is the dairy: the tang of real sirene and thick yogurt in the batter, a flavour a bland cheese simply cannot reproduce. Flaky, savoury, and a little sour, banitsa is comfort and custom in the same buttery spiral.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1 lb phyllo pastry sheets
2.5 cups sirene or feta, crumbled
4 eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup butter, melted (or oil)
1/2 tsp baking soda
Instructions
1
Whisk the eggs (or chickpea batter), yogurt, baking soda, and crumbled cheese into a loose filling.
2
Lay one phyllo sheet, brush with butter, spoon a line of filling along one edge, and roll into a loose rope.
3
Coil the first rope in the center of a round buttered pan; continue with each sheet, coiling outward into a spiral.
4
Brush the top with butter and a splash of the yogurt.
5
Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes until deep gold and crisp. Cool slightly; tear into coils. Hide a charm for luck if it’s New Year.
Sofia New-Year tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Sofia. Sofia bakes banitsa, coiled filo layered with white cheese and egg, and hides a fortune inside it at new year. Bulgarian cooking leans on yogurt and sirene cheese, in cold tarator soup, shopska salad, and slow-cooked clay-pot dishes.
🗺️
Bulgaria. Bulgarian cooking is famous for yogurt and white brine cheese, from the cold soup tarator to banitsa pastry and shopska salad. Yogurt itself is far older than Bulgaria, probably Neolithic and from Mesopotamia or Central Asia, but the bacterium that makes it, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, was isolated from Bulgarian yogurt by Stamen Grigorov in 1905 and carries the country's name. Garden vegetables, grilled meats, and a Balkan-Ottoman heritage define the table.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Bulgaria
Tarator (Cold Yogurt and Cucumber Soup)A chilled Bulgarian summer soup of thinned yogurt, grated cucumber, garlic, dill and walnuts, finished with a drizzle of oil.
KavarmaA slow-cooked Bulgarian clay-pot stew of meat, peppers, onions, and mushrooms in a savory sauce.
Shopska SalataDiced tomato, cucumber, and pepper under a snowy blanket of grated white cheese, Bulgaria's national salad.
Browse all Bulgaria recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Rolling pin, Whisk.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Banitsa?
Coiled phyllo layered with tangy white cheese and egg, baked into a golden spiral, Bulgaria’s breakfast and New Year charm.
Where does Banitsa come from?
Banitsa is a Bulgarian dish from Sofia, Bulgaria.
Can Banitsa be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Banitsa recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Banitsa safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Banitsa take to make?
About 65 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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