Woodfired Khachapuri
These are fun to make and very filling, great for feeding a hungry crowd – and good for breakfast and brunch. We mix three cheeses, mozzarella for stringiness, mature Cheddar for sharpness and feta for saltiness and have added a little smoked mozzarella in the video as we had some in the fridge; so whatever you’ve got really – you can ring the changes. Nothing like the original Georgian mixture but let’s not allow a lack of authenticity get in the way of a good snack.
This recipe will make 4 Khachapuri – check out how we make it on our youtube channel here
Our latest Woodfired Workshop
Ingredients
- 500g strong white flour
- 10g fine seasalt
- 5g fast acting yeast
- 330ml room temperature water
- 120g mozzarella, ripped into little pieces
- 120g grated mature Cheddar
- 120g crumbled feta
- 60g smoked mozzarella (if you have some)
- 2 large ripe tomatoes, deseeded and finely chopped
- 2 red onions, peeled and very thinly sliced
- 100g chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 60g pickled jalapenos (optional)
- 4 medium eggs
- Olive oil
- 2tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1tsp dried thyme
Oven State, equipment etc
Oven temperature 3-4 Mississippi
Between 250C and 275C
Door Slightly ajar if any embers or fire; closed if just retained heat
Handy to have a heat deflector to prevent side-scorch from any embers
Method
- Mix the flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl. Add the water and mix well. Knead the dough on a clean work surface until smooth and springy. Try not to add more flour as it will dry out eventually.
- Put the dough back in a clean bowl, cover and leave to rise for 2 hours or overnight in the fridge. Bring back to room temperature for a couple of hours before using if you do this.
- Mix the cheeses with the thyme and leave in the fridge.
- Divide the dough into 4 even pieces. Shape into balls, cover with oiled clingfilm and leave to rest for 30 minutes. This will make shaping the breads much easier.
- Take a ball of dough and place it on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle a little flour on top.
- Use your fingertips to press the dough out to make a rounded rectangle about 22x10cm.
- Take two corners at one of the ends and cross one over the other. Press down to create the bow of your boat-shaped khachapuri. Repeat at the other end to make the stern.
- Roll the edges in and press down to make the sides of your boat. You should now have a nice, deep pocket to fill with cheese.
- Repeat the shaping process with the other 3 dough balls.
- Drizzle some olive oil over the bases and then add the onions, mushrooms and onions between them along with the chillies if you are using them. Then divide the cheese mixture between them.
- Put 2 of the khachapuri on to a well floured peel and shuffle them into your oven. Repeat with the other 2.
- Bake for about 7-8 minutes. Remove from the oven. Make a well in the cheese of each khachapuri and crack an egg into the centre of each one. Return to the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes.
- Serve warm with the egg still runny.
Alternatives
- Use different cheeses to try different flavours
- Leave the egg out if you don’t like them
- Add small pieces of cooked meat – bacon, shredded pork or ham, chopped salami all work well
- Change the herbs from thyme to other ones for different flavours – parsley, chives, a bit or rosemary maybe
- These can easily be made indoors. Heat your oven to 250c and bake as above.
Happy cooking – do let us know how you get on.
We hope you like what we’re doing – if you do and you’d like us to create more, you can support us by buying us a virtual coffee on our Ko-fi channel here.
Thanks in advance
David and Holly
