Khachapuri Acharuli

As tradition built it

Makes 2. About 2 hours, mostly proving.

Ingredients

• 500 g strong flour
• as for khachapuri Imeruli: 8g fresh yeast, with sugar, in about 165ml warm water yeast, enriched dough as above
• 400 g sulguni, or the mozzarella and feta blend
• 2 eggs, one per khachapuri
• a knob butter

Method

1. Make an enriched yeast dough as for khachapuri Imeruli, prove until doubled.
2. Divide in two, shape each into a boat, pinching and rolling the edges up into raised walls.
3. Fill with grated cheese.
4. Bake at high heat until the crust is coloured and the cheese is bubbling, but not yet fully browned.
5. Crack an egg into the centre of each, return to the oven for the final 1 to 2 minutes only, just long enough to set the white while the yolk stays fully runny.
6. Finish with a knob of butter on removal.
7. Eat by tearing pieces of the crust wall and swirling them through the molten cheese, egg and butter centre, emulsifying it further as you go, rather than cutting the whole thing with cutlery.

What a modern chef changes

The final minute treated as the whole dish's hinge, not an afterthought.

Rung 3

Method

1. Time the egg stage by the white, not the clock. Watch continuously once the egg goes in; the difference between a perfectly set white over a runny yolk and an overcooked one is measured in seconds, not minutes.
2. Run the bake on a preheated steel or the Big Green Egg at maximum practical heat, the same tone-adjacent principle as Rung 3 elsewhere in this chapter, so the crust sets fast enough that the interior stays properly soft under it.
3. Serve immediately, and hand the diner the tearing-and-swirling method directly rather than plating it pre-mixed; the dish is built around that final assembly happening at the table, not in the kitchen.