Author Topic: Acharuli Khachapuri  (Read 3529 times)

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Acharuli Khachapuri
« on: April 29, 2020, 06:46:57 PM »
Acharuli Khachapuri

My first attempt at making one of the most visibly distinctive classic Georgian dishes, from the Adjara region in the southwest of the country. Khachapuris - cheesebreads - are a wide variety of local dishes in Georgia, but the acharuli with its boat shape and egg topping is one of the most visually distinctive varieties. Here's my attempt to make it, using more or less this recipe with a couple of modifications, in pictures :)



First, dough making. Equal mix of about 50mls each of milk and water, warm to 30-40c, mix in yeast, add to flour with a small dash of oil and half an egg (maybe salt for taste but I didn't, tiny bit of sugar for a more golden colour), mix in enough flour to make a reasonable dough.


Cover and leave to rise for 2hrs. This went badly for me because my yeast was old and rubbish. Use good in-date yeast and your bread won't be as horrifically dense as mine was. I moved it from the bookshelf to a super low temp (40C) oven for a while but that didn't help alas.


Once maybe 1h30 is up, you can make the filling. Or at any time really, it refrigerates OK for a few hours, you're going to cook it anyway. Here we are: mix of 2/3 mozzarella to 1/3 feta, plus an egg, a little bit of butter (like under 50g), and in my case some added salt and tarragon.


Smush it all together nicely with a fork.


OK, get the dough out once it's risen and knead it for ten mins or so, then make a flat boat shape, put the filling in the middle, and wrap it round like so:


I used the other half egg from earlier to glaze it, and added more tarragon on top.


Then cook it! I cooked it for 12 mins, then took it out, cracked the egg, and put it back in: I should actually have added it earlier as it took rather longer to cook the egg than expected (recipe said 3 mins, was definitely more like 6) and I think I probably overcooked the other bits as a result. A final stick of butter may be added at the very end.


Goes well with wine, it's Georgian after all!


Overall it worked fine and made for a decent dinner, and if the bread had worked properly then I think it would've really been very nice. Can recommend!
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