Asia → Kazakhstan → Almaty
🍳 BREAKFAST
Baursak
Fluffy yeasted fried dough puffs served warm with butter, jam, or honey and tea.
Kazakh · easy · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 20 min
~346 cal · 9g protein · 63g carbs · 6g fat · 2g fiber · 7g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Baursak are the beloved fried dough puffs of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, pillows of yeasted dough deep-fried until golden and airy, served warm. A symbol of hospitality, they are piled high at every celebration, holiday, and welcome for guests.
Softer and puffier than Mongolian boortsog, baursak are made from a leavened dough and eaten with butter, jam, honey, or the region's dairy spreads and tea. The smell of them frying signals a feast or a celebration.
Central to Kazakh weddings, holidays, and hospitality, baursak are festive, communal food, often blessed and shared.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and egg-, 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
- 3.5 cups flour
- 2 tsp yeast
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup warm milk (or kefir)
- 2 tbsp butter, softened
- 1 tsp salt
- as needed oil for frying
Instructions
- 1Mix the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, warm milk, and softened butter into a soft dough and let it rise until doubled.
- 2Roll out and cut into squares or diamonds.
- 3Let them puff a few minutes, then fry in hot oil until golden and airy.
- 4Drain on paper towels.
- 5Serve warm with butter, jam, or honey and tea.
Almaty tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Almaty. Almaty sits under the Tian Shan mountains and eats beshbarmak, boiled meat over wide sheets of noodle, taken with the hands as the name suggests. Horse and mutton, fermented mare's milk, and dense wheat breads reflect a nomadic tradition now settled in a city kitchen.
🗺️
Kazakhstan. Beshbarmak means five fingers, which is the instruction: boiled meat and wide sheets of dough eaten by hand from a shared platter. Kyrgyzstan calls it its national dish too, so it belongs to the steppe rather than to a border. The sheep's head is presented to the most honoured guest, who divides it and hands pieces on.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Kazakhstan
Beshbarmak"Five fingers": boiled meat over wide noodle sheets with onion gravy, Kazakhstan’s dish of honor, eaten by hand.
KuyrdakA hearty fry-up of meat, potato, and onion, the celebratory dish traditionally made when an animal is freshly butchered.
ZhentA sweet, crumbly pressed mixture of toasted millet, butter, and raisins, a traditional Kazakh treat of the steppe.
Browse all Kazakhstan recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Rolling pin.
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Kazakhstan meal
KumisDrink
ZhentDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Baursak?
Fluffy yeasted fried dough puffs served warm with butter, jam, or honey and tea.
Where does Baursak come from?
Baursak is a Kazakh dish from Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Can Baursak be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Baursak recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Baursak 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 still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), 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 Baursak take to make?
About 45 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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