Whole-Wheat Khachapuri

Whole-Wheat Khachapuri
Originally uploaded by suebobdavis.

I started the day making horchata, a Mexican drink. Later I moved on to the food of a different continent, making Khachapuri, which are ostensibly from Georgia (not the one in the U.S., the one in Asia), though I have met any Georgians or eaten any Georgian food that I have not made with my own hands, so I don't know how correct I am being.A real Georgian might be appalled by my efforts. All I can say is that my Khachapuri have Greg's stamp of approval, and he is a pretty tough customer.

I found the recipe in Cooking Light magazine a long time ago and modified it - and you know they modified it from the Georgian recipe. So by now it may be completely unrecognizable. But that doesn't mean it wasn't good.

It is pretty much any sort of finely chopped melange in a yogurt-based bread crust. Using what I had on hand, I chose cooked spinach, potatoes and onions mixed with leftover myzithra cheese (see previous post). The only caveat is that the filling you make be rather dry, because wet mixtures will make the dough damp and leaden. You need about 2 cups of filling for 4 khachapuri.

The dough:
1 1/2 to 2 cups flour (I used 1/2 cup white and the rest wheat)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup plain yogurt

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Oil a large baking sheet.

Mix one cup of flour with the baking soda. Add the yogurt and stir until combined. Begin adding flour until you have a dough that is no longer wet and tacky. Turn out onto a floured board and knead for 3 or 4 minutes, until the dough is elastic and soft.

Cut dough into 4 pieces. Roll out to about an 8 inch circle. Put 1/4 of the filling in the middle of the dough, leaving about 3/4 inch border aroung the outside.

Begin folding sections of the dough over the filling in an overlapping pattern like flower petals (see photo). Push down on the middle of the dough to seal the "petals" and then flip the bread over. Push down on the back until it is about 1/2 inch thick.

Bake for 6 to 7 minutes until golden brown. Cut into quarters and serve hot.