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AI-generated photograph: One golden boat shaped cheese bread on a round dark wooden board, its open middle full of bubbling white cheese with a glossy orange egg yolk and a melting cube of butter in the centre, seen from directly above

Home · Recipes · Khachapuri Adjaruli, cheese bread boats with egg

Georgian · Soups and starters

Khachapuri Adjaruli, cheese bread boats with egg

cheese bread boat · runny egg yolk · butter

AI-generated photograph

Khachapuri (cheese bread) from Adjara on the Black Sea coast is shaped like a boat, filled with melting cheese and finished with an egg yolk and butter. You stir the yolk and butter into the hot cheese at the table and tear off the crust to dip; the time includes an hour for the dough to rise.

Contains: cereals containing gluten, milk and eggs, as written. Gluten (strong white bread flour), milk (whole milk, mozzarella, feta and butter) and eggs (the eggs for the cheese, the glaze and the yolks). Check the yeast label too, though plain dried yeast contains none of the 14.

Ingredients

  • 400g strong white bread flour, plus a little for dusting
  • 7g sachet fast action dried yeast
  • 1 teaspoon caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon fine salt
  • 150ml whole milk, warmed until just warm to the touch
  • 100ml warm water
  • 1 tablespoon sunflower oil, plus a little for the bowl
  • 250g block mozzarella (the firm kind sold for pizza), grated, in place of sulguni (a stretchy, salty Georgian cheese)
  • 200g feta, crumbled, in place of imeruli (a fresh, tangy Georgian cheese)
  • 5 medium eggs, British Lion stamped (1 for the cheese and glaze, 4 for the yolks)
  • 40g unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

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Let's cook

  1. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Pour in the warm milk, warm water and the oil and stir into a soft, slightly sticky dough.
  2. Tip it onto a lightly floured worktop and knead for 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and springy. Put it in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave somewhere warm for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
  3. Heat the oven to 240C (220C fan), or as high as it goes, with two large baking trays inside. Mix the mozzarella and feta in a bowl. Beat 1 egg in a cup and stir half of it into the cheese with 2 tablespoons of water.
  4. Knock the air out of the dough and cut it into 4 pieces. On a floured sheet of baking paper, roll each piece into an oval about 25cm long and 15cm wide.
  5. Roll each long side in towards the middle, leaving a wide open space in the centre, then pinch and twist the two ends together to make a boat with pointed tips. Fill each boat with a quarter of the cheese.
  6. Brush the dough edges with the rest of the beaten egg. Slide the boats on their paper onto the hot trays and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the cheese is bubbling.
  7. Separate the other 4 eggs, keeping the whites for another day. Take the boats out, make a small hollow in the middle of each with a spoon and slip in a yolk. Bake for 1 to 2 minutes more, just until the yolk is glossy and warm.
  8. Put a piece of butter on each boat and serve at once. Stir the yolk and butter into the hot cheese, then tear off the crust and dip it in.

Tips

  • The yolk stays runny. In the UK, British Lion stamped eggs are considered safe eaten runny, even for pregnant women and older people. If you prefer, bake the boats for 4 minutes after adding the yolk until it sets.
  • Mozzarella and feta are often made with animal rennet, so choose cheeses labelled vegetarian if that matters to you.
  • Khachapuri is best straight from the oven. Leftovers keep in the fridge for 1 day and reheat in a 180C (160C fan) oven for 8 minutes until the cheese is piping hot.

Swaps

  • Saltier and more like sulguni: use half mozzarella and half grated halloumi instead of the feta.
  • One big boat to share: shape all the dough into one long boat and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, with 2 or 3 yolks on top.

Our own recipe. The photograph is AI-generated.

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