Laz Böreği

Laz böreği is a pastry baked with milk cream sandwiched between layers of thin dough, and it is popular along Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Börek is the name for dough dishes that wrap a variety of fillings, but here a sweet muhallebi made with milk and sugar is spread in the center.

Baked with a layer of milk cream in between

In one example from Rize, wheat flour, milk, water, fat and other ingredients are kneaded and rested, then rolled out into thin yufka, as for baklava. Half of the dough sheets are layered on an oiled baking tray, a muhallebi made from milk, sugar, wheat flour and eggs is spread over them, and the remaining dough is used to cover it. Melted butter is poured over the top, and the pastry is cut into pieces, baked, cooled, and drizzled with syrup. The toasty thin layers and the soft milk cream in the center are enjoyed together.

In another example from Artvin, ingredients such as eggs and yogurt, as well as black pepper, are added to the muhallebi. The recorded steps are to bake the bottom dough and cream first, then layer the remaining dough on top and bake it further. The finishing syrup in the Rize example is not mentioned in this method.

Even within the same pastry, where the sweetness is added and how the layers are baked differ.

Local aromas and tables

Sema Kutlu, a pastry maker in Rize, says that each sheet of dough is rolled out thin one at a time using starch, and that at Kutlu’s own shop, cinnamon and lemon zest are used in the muhallebi. While there are examples with black pepper, other makers choose different aromas. It is a pastry that is cut into pieces and served at weddings, at gatherings welcoming many guests, and with late-afternoon tea.

Necla Keresteci, who started a shop in Trabzon based on homemade Laz böreği, says that orders increase especially during Ramadan. When the pastry originated and who first made it are uncertain.

In having a filling sandwiched between thin sheets of dough, it resembles baklava, but in Laz böreği the milk cream occupies the center. In a cut cross-section, the thin dough on the top and bottom and the thick cream can each be seen.

Glossary