Whenever we arrived at Baba and Deda’s house – after the firmly placed kisses on each cheek as you stepped onto the driveway – we were ushered straight into the kitchen to eat. A huge platter of fruit adorned the center of the table, right underneath the Da Vinci replica, ‘The Last Supper’ and the hallowed childhood framed picture of our cousin, Stephen, who was the only one of us fortunate to be born a male.

Baba reverently opened the lid of a box to reveal the most delectable cheese pastry. I have it on good authority that back in the day, she would have created the flaky pastry delight herself, however the Turkish shop down the road provides a delectable version, so we enthusiastically tucked into that instead.

Not having the benefit of her specific recipe, I have trialled a number of versions in the past and have discovered that there are countless varieties of this dish. I’ve experimented with cream cheese, puff pastry and feta, thought the dish was actually Burek for a while, then stumbled onto this recipe that is the closest to my experience of the Balkan speciality. Here is my tweaked version.

Serbian Cheese Pastry (Gibanica)

Ingredients
375g packet of fillo pastry
6 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1tsp salt
600 g feta cheese, crumbled
2 cups sour cream
250g butter, melted

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease a large roasting pan or casserole dish and set aside.
3. Crack eggs into mixing bowl and beat.
4. Add sifted flour into the bowl, along with the salt. Mix together.
5. Add remaining ingredients (except for butter). Mix well.
6. Arrange 2 sheets of fillo pastry in the bottom of the dish and brush with 2 tablespoons of the melted butter.
7. Scoop 6 tablespoons of the mixture over the pastry and brush to cover.
8. Repeat the layering of the pastry, butter and cheese mixture until you reach the final two layers of fillo.
9. Brush the top with butter and place dish into oven to bake until top is well browned and puffed up (at least 1 hour).

I’ve found that this pastry tastes a lot better either room temperature, or if you reheat it in the oven. It also freezes well, you can place the frozen pastry into a preheated oven until it is golden brown, flaky and heated through. My mum reheats the leftovers in the sandwich press to get the same effect.

What recipes do you love to recreate from you past? Let me know down below!