Name: Su Böreği (Boiled-Sheet Cheese Pastry)
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour; 3 eggs; 100 ml water; 1 tsp salt; 100 g cornflour; 3 L water; 1 tbsp salt; 2 L iced water; 2 eggs; 200 ml milk; 100 ml oil; 50 g melted butter; 300 g white cheese; 1 handful parsley; 1 egg yolk; 1 tbsp plain yoghurt; 30 g melted butter

Ingredients

8servings

Dough (yufka)
plain flour400 g
eggs3
water100 ml
salt1 tsp
cornflour · for dusting; it sticks less than flour100 g
For boiling
water3 L
salt1 tbsp
iced water · the boiled sheets go straight into it2 L
The wash between the layers
eggs2
milk200 ml
oil100 ml
melted butter50 g
Filling
white cheese · beyaz peynir or feta; if very salty, soak 30 minutes in cold water300 g
parsley · finely chopped1 handful
For the top
egg yolk1
plain yoghurt1 tbsp
melted butter30 g

Steps

Mix the flour, eggs, water and salt and knead 10 minutes until smooth, then cover and rest 30 minutes. The gluten has to relax before it will roll thin (dough and gluten).
⏲ 30 min
Divide into 8-10 pieces and roll them out, dusting generously with cornflour. They do not need to be filo-thin — they are going to be boiled, so lasagne thickness is plenty. That is what makes this yufka rather than filo.
Bring 3L of water and the salt to a hard boil, and set a bowl of iced water beside it.
Boil the sheets one at a time for 1 minute, lift each into the iced water, then spread it on a cloth. This one step is the "water" in the name. Like pasta, boil them longer and they tear (cooking noodles).
⏲ 1 min
Whisk the 2 eggs, milk, oil and melted butter into the wash. Mix the cheese with the parsley but add no salt — there is already salt in the cheese and in the boiling water (salt and seasoning).
Oil a baking tin and lay in about half the boiled sheets, ladling the wash over every single one. Do not brush thinly with fat as you would for baklava — it is the water in the wash that makes the layers stick to each other.
Spread the cheese and parsley evenly, then cover with the remaining sheets the same way. Skimping on the wash leaves dry layers, which is how this most often goes wrong.
On the very top sheet only, use egg yolk beaten with the yoghurt instead of the wash, and drizzle over the melted butter. That is where the colour and shine come from.
Bake at 190°C for 35-40 minutes, until the top is deep gold (what your oven is doing).
⏲ 37 min 30 sec
Let it stand 10 minutes before cutting it into squares. A knife into it hot drags the layers and smears them (serving temperature).
⏲ 10 min

Tips & Variations

Variations

Börek is a large family, and this is the only one whose sheets are boiled. Sigara böreği is rolled like a cigarette and fried, kol böreği is rolled long and baked, muska böreği is folded into triangles. All of them use raw yufka. Only su böreği boils it.
The same family spread with the Ottomans: Balkan burek, Israeli bourekas, Armenian beurek, Tunisian brik and Greek boureki are all one root. This page is the Turkish form, the one that boils its sheets.
Fillings: white cheese and parsley is the standard. Minced meat cooked with onion (kıymalı), spinach, potato and crushed walnut all appear. The photograph is the version from Maraş, made with goat's milk cheese.
The exact opposite of baklava. That page says "butter is what keeps the layers apart — anywhere you skip, two sheets bake into one and that patch chews differently." All true, and su böreği aims for exactly that sticking, on purpose. Same pastry, opposite objective.
And of spanakopita, which brushes each sheet with a thin film of oil for flaky layers. Here the oil has egg and milk mixed into it, so there is water in it. What you put between the sheets is what decides crisp or soft.
Structurally it is lasagne: boiled sheets, something wet ladled between them, stacked and baked. Calling it lasagne made with yufka is not far wrong, and fresh lasagne sheets genuinely work in it. The difference is that what goes between is egg, milk and oil rather than tomato and béchamel.
Shortcut: ready-made yufka from a Turkish grocer skips the dough entirely, and fresh lasagne sheets are about the same thickness.

Tips

Why boil it at all. Boiling hydrates the sheet completely and cooks its starch through. After that the oven only has to dry it, so the layers stay soft. Raw filo brushed with butter does the reverse — moisture leaves, the leaves separate, and it shatters. Neither is right in the abstract; it depends which one you are making.
Do not fight for thinness. These get boiled, so they need not be see-through. Rolled too thin they tear in the pot. Lasagne thickness is about perfect.
Dust with cornflour, not flour. Flour clouds the boiling water within a couple of sheets and makes them stick to each other.
One minute, then straight into iced water. Exactly like pasta. Longer and they tear as you lift them; skip the cold water and carryover heat keeps cooking them limp.
Lay each boiled sheet out flat on a cloth. Stacked, they weld together and cannot be separated again. If you run out of cloth, oil lightly between them.
Be generous with the wash. It is very nearly the only way this fails. Ladle it over every sheet until the surface is wet and glossy.
Taste the cheese for salt first. Straight from the packet, a salty feta on top of salted boiling water is too much. Thirty minutes in cold water and a squeeze fixes it.
The top sheet gets different treatment. The wash does not colour well, so use egg yolk beaten with yoghurt — the acid in the yoghurt deepens the colour.
Rest 10 minutes, then cut. Cut straight from the oven and the layers drag. Left to go completely cold it stiffens, so ten minutes is the window.
Reheat in the oven or an air fryer, 10 minutes at 180°C, and the top comes back. A microwave makes the layers soggy (reviving leftovers).

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