Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Burek
Coiled flaky pastry filled with cheese, baked golden and eaten with a drinking yogurt.
Macedonian · medium · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 35 min
~713 cal · 31g protein · 45g carbs · 45g fat · 2g fiber · 5g sugars · 27g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Burek is the great breakfast pastry of the Balkans, carried across the region in Ottoman times and eaten from Bosnia to North Macedonia, where it is a genuine morning institution. Sheets of thin, hand-stretched dough (kori) are layered or filled, coiled into a great spiral, and baked until deep gold and shatteringly flaky.
In North Macedonia the classic filling is a salty white cheese, though minced meat, spinach, or leek versions are common too. Stretching the dough thin enough is the mark of a good burek baker, and dedicated shops turn out fresh trays of it from early morning to feed the breakfast crowds.
It is cut into wedges and eaten hot, traditionally washed down with a glass of cold drinking yogurt, kiselo mleko, whose tang cuts the richness of the pastry. Flaky, savoury, and filling, burek with yogurt is how much of the Balkans starts the day.
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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 thin pastry sheets (kori/filo)
2 cups white cheese
2 egg
2 cups sparkling mineral water (for the brushing mix)
1/3 cup oil or butter (to brush)
2 cups drinking yogurt, to serve
Instructions
1
Mix the crumbled cheese with the egg (or plant yogurt) and a little salt.
✎ Chef’s note
Many Macedonian households use nothing but crumbled fresh full-fat cow cheese and salt. The egg is a binder, not a requirement.
2
Whisk the mineral water with the oil and a pinch of salt, brush a pastry sheet with it, dot the filling along one edge in small heaps rather than a smooth line, and roll into a loose rope.
✎ Chef’s note
The brushing liquid is the Macedonian trick: sparkling mineral water whisked with oil and salt, not oil alone. It steams between the sheets and is what separates them into flakes instead of gluing them into a slab. Dotting the cheese in small heaps rather than spreading it keeps the pastry from going soggy in a stripe.
3
Coil the ropes into a spiral in an oiled pan.
4
Brush the top with the same mix, prick it here and there with a toothpick, and bake at 400F (200C) until deep golden and flaky, 40 to 45 minutes.
5
Run a knife around the edge, turn it out, cut into wedges, and serve warm rather than scalding, with cold drinking yogurt.
Skopje tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Skopje. The pot is part of the dish. Tavce gravce means roughly beans in a tava, and the unglazed earthenware they bake in comes straight to the table, which is why the top has crisped while the beans underneath are still loose. The Tetovo version is the best known of the regional variations.
🗺️
North Macedonia. North Macedonian cooking is Balkan and garden-driven, ajvar pepper relish, tavče gravče baked beans, and grilled meats. Peppers, beans, dairy, and Ottoman-rooted pastries define a warm, rustic 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 North Macedonia
Tavče GravčeNorth Macedonia's national dish: white beans baked in a clay pan with paprika, peppers, and mint.
PastrmajlijaAn oval bread base topped with cubed marinated meat and baked crisp, North Macedonia's boat-shaped flatbread.
RavanijaA moist semolina cake drenched in sweet syrup, a simple dessert across North Macedonia.
Browse all North Macedonia 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.
Make it a North Macedonia meal
RavanijaDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Burek?
Coiled flaky pastry filled with cheese, baked golden and eaten with a drinking yogurt.
Where does Burek come from?
Burek is a Macedonian dish from Skopje, North Macedonia.
Can Burek be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Burek 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 Burek 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 Burek take to make?
About 60 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 35 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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