Albanian Pite
Source: tastykitchen.com/recipes/special-dietary-needs/vegetarian/albanian-pite/
Ingredients
- 3/4 teaspoons Salt
- 2 cups Water, Lukewarm
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 4 cups All-purpose Flour
- 4 Tablespoons Butter
- 4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1/2 pounds Fresh Spinach
- 2 cups Feta Cheese
Directions
- Dough: 1.
- Mix salt, water and 2 tablespoons oil together in a medium-sized bowl.
- Slowly add in flour until mixture forms a dough.
- 2.
- Knead on a floured surface for about 5 minutes, or until the dough becomes smooth, not sticky.
- 3.
- Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let sit for 1/2 an hour.
- (Preferably in a warm place.
- I usually turn my oven on warm and let the bowl sit on the range during this time.
- It works like a charm!)
- Butter Mixture: 1.
- Melt together 4 Tablespoons each of butter and olive on the stove over low then set aside until needed.
- Putting it all together: 1.
- After dough has risen, place it on a floured surface.
- 2.
- Roll it with your hands into a snake-like shape (think kindergartners playing with clay!)
- 3.
- Cut off golf-ball sized pieces (I got about 28 out of my snake of dough).
- 4.
- Form the pieces into balls by folding the edges of the dough inward.
- Flip over so the smooth side of the dough balls faces up.
- 5.
- With a rolling pin, flatten the dough balls into about 3-4 circles/ovals (you want the dough as thin as possible).
- 6.
- Take each dough circle and individually stretch it out even further by hand (think pizza-making!).
- 7.
- As you stretch out each circle, you want to start stacking them on top of each other and sealing the edges of each together.
- In between each layer, brush on some of the butter mixture.
- So, itll go:
- -Stretch one circle of dough, lay it on the table -Brush on butter mixture (cover the entire surface) -Stretch another circle of dough -Lay the second circle on top of the first, and pull the edges of the second circle so it aligns with the first circle -Press edges together so they fuse -REPEAT
- Youll want to make three piles of these stacks of dough circles.
- One pile will have 5 layers; this will be your inner layer of the pie.
- The other two piles will be your bottom layer and top layer of the pie.
- These two stacks should have about an equal amount of dough layers just split the remaining the dough circles in half after making your first stack of the inner layer.
- NOW you get to assemble the actual pie.
- Preheat your oven to 375F.
- 8.
- Brush a little of the butter mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 baking sheet.
- Move your bottom layer of dough (stretch it further as you move it) and place on the baking sheet.
- Stretch the dough so it covers the bottom of the pan and pinch the edges of the dough directly to the pan so it sticks.
- 9.
- Squeeze the water from your spinach and then spread half of it evenly on the dough.
- 10.
- Sprinkle some feta evenly on top of the spinach.
- Amount is to your taste.
- 11.
- Drizzle a little of the butter mixture over the spinach and feta.
- 12.
- Repeat steps 8-11 with your thinner middle layer of dough and the remaining spinach and feta.
- 13.
- Place the top layer of dough on top and pinch the corners of the dough together so all edges of the pie are sealed.
- 14.
- Brush MORE butter on the top of the dough.
- 15.
- Place dough in oven and bake until the top is nice and brown (my oven took about 45 minutes for this, yours will probably be different!).
- 16.
- Slice and serve immediately.
- Leftovers are quite delicious too!