My quick & easy take on Serbian gibanica (cheese pie)

The other day we went to my partner’s friend’s home for a visit. They have 5 boys — yes, 5! — from age 6 to 17 years old.  Apparently they married earlier and started parenting life earlier – much earlier than us. I look at them in awe and full of envy, seriously, imagine that I already have a daughter who is 10 years old instead of one? Life would be much different.  But of course no regret, I adore Zoey so much! 🙂  Ok ok, off the topic again.  The point is the wife made gibanica, which I fell in love instantly.  “Teach me, teach me how to do it please”.  “it’s very easy” she was so glad to see my response of the food and gave me a few pointers.

The following day I went to the shop and bought ingredients, actually it sounds very simple, but I made a few times – every time quite different result. But the last time before we left the country, I sent some gibanica I made to them, and even the oldest boy said that I nailed it. LOL! Could not be happier!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredient:
Egg x 5
Some olive oil
Young cheese (honestly, this part is the most mysterious part for me, as everybody has their own perception of cheese to be used for gibanica) x 500g
Yogurt x 20g (optional)
One pack of pastry (can buy from any supermarket)

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 200C
  2. Beat 5 eggs thoroughly. (my friend was using the electric mixer, while I didn’t have that luxury, hence just try your best there)
  3. Then add in olive oil, cheese, mix well & set aside
  4. Grease the baking tray with oil, then spread one pastry sheet on the bottom, can use one or two. If using two, you can overlap them and trim the edges or just leave them there
  5. Interesting part – just use your hand to crumble one pastry sheet, then dip into the egg mix and put on the tray. Then do the rest of the pastry sheet until you use all of them
  6. There might be some egg mix left, just pour on top
  7.  Bake in the oven for 45-55 mins, see the top becomes golden, then it’s done.
  8. Serve immediately (you can also eat when it’s cold, I prefer warm as you can feel the texture)

Result:
We finished everything within two days. Baby girl sometimes took a few bites, sometimes didn’t, depending on her mood, remember, she is a very picky eater. 🙂

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