Persia and the Caucasus · Volume 11, The Walnut and the Vine
Khachapuri Imeruli
Imereti
Illustration
- Time
- 2 hours
- Researched
- 8 sources cited
As tradition built it
Makes one loaf. About 2 hours, mostly proving.
Ingredients
- 500 g strong flour
- 8g fresh yeast, with 1½ tsp sugar in about 165ml warm water yeast, activated in warm water with a little sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1½ tsp (about 8g) a little lemon juice
- 1½ tsp (about 8g) salt
- 400g, plus more to finish melted butter, worked into the dough
- 350 g unsalted Imeretian cheese, or a mozzarella and feta blend, see Sourcing
Method
- Combine the flour with the activated yeast, egg yolk, lemon juice, salt, melted butter and enough water to form a soft dough.
- Knead well, rest at least 15 minutes.
- Fold the cheese inside the dough, working it through so the filling is fully enclosed, then reshape into a round loaf.
- Bake at 220°C, about 15 minutes, until deeply golden.
- Brush with butter as it comes out of the oven.
What a modern chef changes
The cheese substitution handled honestly, and the bread given a real bake environment.
Rung 3
Method
- Use a mozzarella and feta blend, roughly two to one, low-moisture mozzarella specifically, since full-moisture fresh mozzarella releases too much liquid and makes the bread soggy. This is a workaround, not a real substitute, and this chapter says so plainly rather than pretending otherwise.
- Preheat a pizza steel or the Big Green Egg hard, at least thirty minutes, and add steam at loading with a pan of boiling water, treating the bake as a tone-adjacent radiant environment rather than a standard domestic oven cycle.
- Brush with butter the moment it leaves the heat, not before, so the crust has already fully set and the butter sits on top rather than steaming into the crumb.