Su Böreği: The Waterfall Protocol
"Water Börek" is the Turkish answer to Lasagna. It requires boiling raw dough sheets before baking. High difficulty, high reward. The most difficult pastry in the Turkish stack.
Why boil dough? The goal is a paradox: layers that are soft and slippery (like pasta) on the inside, but crispy and golden on the outside. Baking alone dries it out. Boiling hydrates the gluten structure permanently. You need both.
🛒 The Variables
- 6 cupsHigh-protein flour
- 5Large eggs (the binder)
- ½ cupWater
- 1 tspSalt
- — Filling
- 400 gFeta cheese, crumbled
- 1 bunchFresh parsley, chopped
- — For layering
- 250 gButter, melted
- 1 cupMilk (mixed with butter for topping)
🛠️ Execution Logic
The Dough Compilation
Combine flour, eggs, salt, and water in a large bowl. Knead firmly for 8–10 minutes until smooth and slightly stiff — this is a low-hydration dough by design. It should feel tighter than pasta dough. Cover with a damp cloth and rest for 30 minutes minimum. Skip this rest and the gluten will fight you every time you try to roll it out.
The Expansion
Divide the dough into 12 equal balls. On a well-floured surface, roll each ball into a sheet as thin as you can get it — aim for near-transparent. A long Turkish rolling pin (oklava) is the traditional tool and genuinely helps. Lay each finished sheet on a clean cloth. Do not stack them; they will fuse. Keep them separated while you work.
Hydro-Shock Therapy
This is the hard part. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a rolling boil. Prepare an ice bath in a wide bowl. Drop one dough sheet into the boiling water. After exactly 60 seconds, lift it out carefully with a slotted spoon or two spatulas — it will be fragile. Immediately submerge it in the ice bath to stop the cooking. Remove, let the water drain, and squeeze very gently. It will feel like a wet towel. This is correct. Do this for 10 of the 12 sheets. Keep 2 sheets dry (they go on the bottom and top for structure).
The Filling
Mix the crumbled feta with the chopped parsley. Taste it — the seasoning is already there from the cheese. If your feta is very salty, rinse it first. Some recipes add a beaten egg to bind the filling; this is optional but gives a cleaner cut when serving.
The Assembly
Butter your baking tray (roughly 30×40cm). Lay one dry sheet flat as the base — this gives the bottom structure so it doesn't turn to mush. Now layer the boiled sheets one by one, brushing melted butter between every single layer. At layer 6 (the midpoint), spread the cheese and parsley filling evenly. Continue layering the remaining boiled sheets with butter. Finish with the second dry sheet on top. Brush the top generously with a mixture of melted butter and milk — this creates the golden crust.
The Bake
Score the top lightly with a knife into serving portions — this makes it much easier to cut after baking. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (350°F) for 40–45 minutes until the top is deeply golden and the edges are pulling away from the tray. Let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting. Cutting immediately will cause it to collapse. Patience is part of the recipe.
💡 Chef's Notes
Why high-protein flour? You need strong gluten to survive the boiling process without the sheet disintegrating. All-purpose works but bread flour works better.
The ice bath is not optional. Without it, the sheets continue cooking from residual heat and become too soft to handle during assembly.
Butter quantity: Turkish recipes are not shy about butter. Use all of it. The butter is the reason this tastes the way it does.
Make it ahead: Assemble the börek a day in advance, refrigerate unbaked, and bake fresh. The texture is actually better this way — the sheets have time to absorb the butter evenly.
Serving: Serve hot with tea. Always tea. It is not negotiable.