Until recently when I looked at my Instagram Reels timeline, I had never heard of bourekas. But after watching a Reel of them being baked, I knew that I wanted to remake them for myself! It’s interesting that I wanted to try something I knew nothing about, but not only did they look good, they also looked easy to make. The fact that it entailed for less than a dozen ingredients had me sold.
What are they? Bourekas are a popular pastry in Israel and Sephardic Jewish communities. They can be filled with different ingredients, but I made a cheese version in this case. They really weren’t hard to prepare, but boy do I have a story to tell you! I created an Instagram Reel myself, but I have to tell you in detailed form, because 15 seconds can only tell you so much.
The first thing I did was gather all of my ingredients. Because why shouldn’t you have them all near you instead of searching for them as you go? Putting in the cheese was easy. Kind of. Measuring the ricotta cheese wasn’t too bad, but crumbling the feta cheese was hard. I managed to do it, but I thought the feta cheese would be softer. And don’t even get me started on the cheddar cheese. Shredding it wasn’t hard, but measuring ½ cup and not making a mess was. Now I’m laughing to myself for sharing that bit. *Inserts monkey covering eyes emoji*
Then I measured the dill and parsley, which you can bet was a cake walk. Lemon zest and egg needed no measurement. Although, I beat up the egg ahead of time to make the stirring stage easier. Speaking of which, the stirring went well. What you didn’t see in the Reel was me shaking in salt and pepper, because that only came to my mind while I was stirring. That’s so bad, but let a cooking novice do her thing.
And then there was the part of rolling out store-bought puff pastry. I think I tired myself out quickly due to pressing the rolling pin too hard. The dough expanded, but I need help in the Effective Dough-Rolling Techniques department.
Afterwards, I cut the dough into squares to the best of my ability. Some portions looked raggedy, but I did my best. Next came the filling. Now the main part that you did not see in the video was the fact that I made errors with the filling measurements a couple of times. At first I thought that I only needed ½ teaspoon of filling, but then I saw that I needed ½ tablespoon of filling, not ½ teaspoon like I thought I had read.
Only thing is that when I tried adding more filling to the Bourekas, I was using a whole tablespoon instead of ½ tablespoon. Therefore, I had to go back again and remove ½ of the filling. There was some fiddling going on, but I was eventually able to proceed with the process. That clip you saw of me inserting the filling in my Reel (if you saw it) was after I had gone through all that trouble. Shoutout to my mom for telling me that ½ teaspoon of filling was too little! I wouldn’t have thought of it otherwise.
When the bourekas were in the pan, I placed some egg wash and sesame seeds on top. Then they were in the 350°F oven for 25 minutes. The directions said 30-40 minutes, but they were ready a few minutes sooner. My type of oven is different, and how long it takes to bake something varies from oven to oven. But let me tell you that the puff pastries rose BEAUTIFULLY! And taking them out of the oven, they looked so beautiful!
The last stage was the cooling on the rack. Afterwards, you know I had to snap a nice photo of it!
They looked good, but were they good? They were. But the main thing I would do differently is exclude the lemon zest. I was wanting to do that myself, but my mother insisted that it could work. I thought the cheese blend was good, but the lemon zest was unnecessary. Nevertheless, they will not be wasted.
If you want to try making these cheese bourekas yourself, you can! It’s a simple recipe and you’re actually trying something from a different culture! The recipe and original Reel are linked below!
Recipe: https://lindseyeatsla.com/cheese-bourekas/
Original Reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CIzgIDonaS2/?igshid=6w6ffplqe0wd
My Reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CJPiz3oprcm/?igshid=1hlq2a3f7u79k
