Flija

Kosovo's layered pastry, thin rings of batter ladled one at a time onto a pan under a domed lid heaped with embers, each brushed with cream before the next goes on

Origin: Kosovo and the Albanian highlands

From the journey of Wheat.

Flija is made outdoors, over several hours, by someone standing over the fire the whole time. A thin batter of flour and water is ladled onto a round pan in concentric rings or radiating stripes, the pan is covered with a saç, a domed metal lid heaped with hot embers, and the layer bakes in a few minutes. It is then brushed with cream or butter, another set of stripes is ladled between the first, and the whole thing is covered again. Fifteen or twenty layers later it is a dense, pale, stratified cake with the texture of nothing else. It is the national dish of Kosovo and it is emphatically communal. Nobody makes flija for one person; it is a thing made for a gathering, for a wedding, for guests, for a family Sunday, and the making of it is part of the occasion. Traditionally it is women's work and the person at the fire is the one whose flija it is. It is served with kajmak, honey, or yoghurt, and torn or cut into wedges. The layers should be visible and distinct, which is the mark of a well-made one, and pulling a wedge apart to see them is part of eating it. The same dish is made across the Albanian-speaking highlands, in northern Albania, in western North Macedonia, and in the Montenegrin borderlands, and it belongs to the mountain pastoral culture rather than to any one modern state.

Ingredients

Batter

600 g plain flour
1.1 litres water
2 tsp salt

Brushing

250 ml double cream or kajmak, loosened
120 g butter, melted

To serve

200 g kajmak or thick sour cream, to serve
4 tbsp honey, to serve

Method

Whisk the flour, water, and salt into a smooth batter about the consistency of single cream. Rest it for thirty minutes and whisk again.
Heat the oven to 220C (fan 200C, gas 7) with a wide, shallow, heavy round tin inside. Mix the cream and melted butter in a jug.
Brush the hot tin with butter and ladle the batter on in five or six radiating stripes, like the spokes of a wheel, leaving gaps between them.
Bake for six to eight minutes, or put it under a hot grill, until the stripes are set and just beginning to colour.
Brush the whole surface with the cream and butter mixture, then ladle a new set of stripes into the gaps between the first.
Repeat: bake, brush, ladle into the gaps, alternating the position of the stripes each time. Continue for twelve to twenty layers.
After the final layer, brush generously and bake for a further ten minutes until the top is golden.
Rest for ten minutes, then cut into wedges and serve warm with kajmak, honey, or yoghurt.

Notes

The traditional saç is a domed metal lid buried in embers, which cooks from above. A hot oven with an overhead grill is the closest domestic equivalent. Some households use a batter enriched with yoghurt or a little oil; the plainest version is flour, water, and salt. It keeps for two days and is reheated in a low oven; it is also eaten cold at breakfast.

The Gastrographer

Name: Flija
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 1 h 50 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Kosovo and the Albanian highlands
Ingredients: 600 g plain flour; 1.1 litres water; 2 tsp salt; 250 ml double cream or kajmak, loosened; 120 g butter, melted; 200 g kajmak or thick sour cream, to serve; 4 tbsp honey, to serve

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control