Gibanica

Gibanica is a traditional dish served in Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans. A similar dish can be found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Bulgaria but it is commonly called Banica. This is one of the most popular and distinctive pastry dishes in the Balkans. This recipe for Serbian Gibanica is a blend of cream cheese, cottage cheese and feta cheese between layers of filo dough that is baked. It’s not recommended for low-cal dieters. There are a few different ways to make gibanica and this is one of them:

Ingredients:
- 1 lb phyllo dough (thawed) - in Serbia you could buy special dough sold as "gibanica sheets". Regular phyllo dough was sold as "pita sheets".
- 2 lbs feta cheese (broken into pieces)
- 1 lb large-curd cottage cheese
- 1 cup sour cream
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 lb butter (melted) - in Serbia for a traditional gibanica pork fat is used
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Beat eggs until foamy. Add sifted flour and salt. Beat well.
Add sour cream and mix well.
Add cottage cheese and feta cheese and mix well. Set aside.
Grease a 13x9x2 inch pan (or it can be round in shape). Place 3 sheets in the pan. Instead of lying it flat, crumple the sheets while layering the gibanica. This make it lighter and gives it more air during baking. Save 3 sheets for the top of the gibanica.
Pour about 2 tablespoons melted butter (or pork fat) over dough and brush to edges.
Spread about 6 large spoons of cheese mixture on top.
Repeat the dough and butter and continue to layer with cheese mixture until 3 sheets of phyllo are left.
Cover with last 3 sheets. Brush with oil, or melted butter, or pork fat. Pierce the top of the gibanica. The gibancia will rise during baking just from the eggs. You can use soda water for the gibanica to rise and make it fluffy. But, don’t ever use baking soda, sometimes you can taste the soda when gibanica is done.
Bake uncovered in the oven at 350 degree for one hour. It will get puffy and golden brown, but will reduce down when it cools. Test for doneness by shaking the pan a bit; if the cheese doesn't move; it's done. If it's getting too dark and the cheese is still jiggly, then you have a problem. To save gibanica - cover with foil and continue to bake (to avoid covering gibanica - next time adjust pan position and heat in oven before you start to bake).
Cut into squares and serve warm, but cool enough not to burn your self and enjoy it. It tastes even better the next day. Traditionally can be served upside-down.