Sukana Pita – Southeastern Serbia Traditional Cheese Pastry
Traditional Balkan Style Phyllo Cheese Pastry.
Servings Prep Time
4servings 45min
Cook Time Passive Time
17min 20min
Servings Prep Time
4servings 45min
Cook Time Passive Time
17min 20min
Ingredients
Dough
Filling
Instructions
Dough
  1. Sift flour into a medium size mixing bowl and stir in the salt.
  2. In a small sauce pan warm up water and dissolve crumbled, fresh yeast and sugar.
  3. Add yeast solution to the flour mix and kneed to make a medium hard dough, about 5-6 minutes.
  4. Roll the dough into a cylinder and then divide into 5 equal parts.
  5. Roll each part again into a smaller cylinder and divide into 3 equal sections. Using a circular motion between your palms make a little ball from each. Arrange dough balls into 5 groups of 3. Lightly dust with flour and cover to prevent drying out.
  6. On floured counter with your palm gently flatten the first ball into a disk shape. Using a rolling pin make 6-8 cm (~3″) flat disc, put aside. Using a pastry brush lightly oil the top of the disc.
  7. Using the same technique make another disc and place it up on the first one, lightly oil the top of the second disc.
  8. Make the third disk and stack it up on top of previous two. Do not coat with oil, instead just lightly dust with flour.
  9. Repeat the same process and create 4 more stacks of 3 dough discs each. Cover and let them rest for 20 minutes.
  10. Using a rolling pin roll out each group of 3 stacked dough discs into a thin sheet. The discs are separated by oil layer which will help creating laminate structure of the pastry. Roll the dough out by lightly pressing down on rolling pin, pulling gently outwards with your fingers, and not palms. Frequently flip the dough and use plenty of flour to prevent sticking. Don’t rush it! It takes patience and practice to develop a thin phyllo pastry dough.
  11. Sprinkle stretched dough with vegetable oil, spread the filling evenly across the dough,
  12. Roll the dough to loosely wrap the contents. Forming a snail shape, and starting from the center, put the rolled dough into a 30cm (12″) round buttered baking pan,
  13. Repeat the same process with the reminding 4 dough stacks.
  14. Pre- warm the oven to 250ºC (480ºF) with the rack in the middle.
  15. Bake for 17-20 min or until golden brown crust is formed. Serve warm.
Filling
  1. Crumble feta cheese into a medium size bowl. Incorporate vegetable oil and sour cream, stir well until paste like. Divide into 5 equal parts.
Recipe Notes
  • Recipe Update (November 23, 2019): If “Five Roses” all purpose flour is used (Canada) the best results are achieved if water amount in recipe is increased to 330 ml.