When I saw the name of this recipe, I had to smile: just for me, I thought: a muffin disguised as a Börek! This is a real Turkish recipe, I didn’t make it up!
Muffin börek
However this borek is different: it’s not made with the usual yufka/filo pastry but this time with frozen puff pastry or milföy as it’s called here – mille-feuilles by any other name!
For me, this certainly simplified matters yesterday as I had a packet of Superfresh milföy hamuru in the freezer. Some friends were coming round in the afternoon so this would be the perfect savoury element to offer along with tea and something sweet, I thought.
The corners of the puff pastry are held together with a toothpick
I am not one for using ready-made items in the cookery department. Put this down to having lived here in Turkey so long where I found myself in the position of having to make everything myself or do without. However, things have slowly but surely changed in terms of what is available now but old habits die hard.
Anyway, the good news is that this puff pastry is brilliant: it couldn’t be easier to use particularly in this recipe as you don’t even have to take out the rolling pin! These muffins are light, crisp and definitely moreish; the filling is made with ingredients that you are almost bound to have on hand especially if you live here eg white cheese or feta!
Simply assemble them all in a bowl and mix
So I give this recipe for muffin borek the thumbs-up and will definitely be making them again.
Ready to serve: muffin borek/muffin böreği – how do they look?
- squares mille feuilles pastry/milföy hamuru
- 150g white cheese/beyaz peynir/feta
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped (if using a thick-skinned type of pepper, half would be enough)
- 2 long green peppers, sweet not hot/çarliston biber
- chopped parsley/maydonoz or dill/dereotu, optional
- ground black pepper/karabiber
- flaked red pepper/kırmızı pul biber
- 1 egg yolk
- nigella/çörek otu
- sesame seeds/susam
- Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F NB this is important for this type of pastry to bake successfully)
- Grease your muffin pan and place a square of pastry in each hole.
- Mix the white cheese, chopped tomato, red pepper, green pepper, chopped parsley or dill if using, ground black pepper and flaked red pepper in a bowl and fill each square. Bring the corners of each one together and secure with a toothpick.
- Brush with a little beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with the nigella and sesame seeds.
- Place the muffin pan in the middle of the pre-heated oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
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