KHABIDZGINA
Khachapuri (Georgian: ხაჭაპური) is justifiably considered to be one of Georgia’s national dishes and is popular in restaurants and in homes. There are several different regional types and it can be made with a variety of fillings. In this recipe we show how to make Khabidzgina (Georgian: ხაბიძგინა), which is a khachapuri filled with potato and cheese. This type of Ossetian khachapuri is a popular meal in Ossetia and Shida Kartli.
Ingredients for the khachapuri dough: 1 kilo of flour, 300 ml of water or milk, 1 egg, 1.5 tbs of yeast, 1 tsp of sugar, 1 tsp of salt.
Ingredients for the filling: 800 grams of potatoes, 800 grams of Imeretian cheese (mozzarella can be substituted for Imeretian cheese) and 200 grams of butter. In the traditional recipe boiled butter is used (erbo).
Preparation (Khachapuri dough): There are several recipes for making khachapuri dough but we find the following method to be the easiest way to prepare it.
Warm 300 ml of water or milk to 35 C and add to a bowl. Stir in the yeast.
Add 600 grams of flour to a mixing bowl and make a depression in the flour. Add the yeast water, milk and a raw egg. If you want the Khabidzgina to have a golden color you can add 1 tsp of sugar.
The dough should be formed into a soft ball.
Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for 2 hours for the dough to rise.
Preparation (potato and cheese filling): Peel (optional), cut and boil the potatoes. Add to a mixing bowl and add 150 grams of butter.
Mash the potatoes and butter.
Crumble the cheese and add to the mashed potato. Mash the ingredients with a wooden spoon.
After two hours in a warm place the dough should look like the picture below.
When you are ready to use the dough, add 150-200 grams of flour and knead the dough. The dough should be fluffy, not wet. Separate it into four same-size balls (only two are shown in the picture below).
Cover the dough balls (we used clingfilm) and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes.
Place one of the balls of dough onto a flour-dusted preparation area and use the palms of your hands and your fingers to flatten the ball of dough into a circular shape that is about 1 cm thick.
Add a quarter of the potato and cheese filling.
Carefully fold the edges of the dough over the filling and seal by pressing the edges together. Pinch the top together to fully seal the dough.
Very carefully flatten the filled Khabidzgina into a circular shape, turn over and place in a cold pan. Complete the flattening process until the Khabidzgina fully covers the base of the pan.
Cook on a medium heat for 5-7 minutes, then carefully turn it over and cook for a further 5 minutes. Repeat the process to cook each Khabidzgina.
Serving: Brush the top of the Khabidzgina with the remainder of the butter and serve immediately.
Enjoy your Khabidzgina!
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Love this, it looks delicious!!
made this once before after seeing on a travel show but apart from that i’m a newcomer to this site and to Georgian food.I look forward to trying some of these recipes as they look very tasty and appeal to my Brit liking for hearty food, dumplings, meat pie type things that I still have after 25 years in China and Taiwan. I just started making the dough but it’s much drier than in the recipe with 300ml liquid added and also not very soft. so at this early stage i seem to have taken a wrong turn. never mind i’ll try again. even if not exactly like the recipe, dough, cheese and potato will still be tasty when it’s done.next time i will measure the 600g of flour rather than just guess.also i wonder if choice of flour has made a difference? i used high gluten flour i use for bread. perhaps medium gluten would be better? thanks for your help
spoke too soon. after an hour and a half, while not as moist as in the pic above, it also isn’t as dry now as it was and looks not unlike the dough in the pic, so we are on the right track, i also added onions and garlic to the potato and cheese, just cos i like them both (and all that cheese and butter NEEDS some garlic)
mmmmmmm… first one burst and stuck to the pan, and the bottom came off when i turned it.not too impressed cos the filling is all over the stove, but never mind i wll eat it anyway, just as a mash. maybe heat too high, actually even before cooking the filling had burst out. i wasn’t gentle enough and didn’t manage to get an even thickness with the dough, so cooking it, it stuck and then split when turned. live and learn; anyway, second time ( only made 2 cos it’s very late here) i decided to bake it and it looks alright so far. didn’t burst when i flattened out. i think it’s probbaly a gd idea next time to reserve a bit of dough to do repair if holes appear when the dough is thick enough overal but some thin burst points appear. in my opinion, the recipe needs to be about 450ml of liquid not 300ml . what i’ve done so far isn’t very pretty but i bet it still tastes very nice, so no problem. i’ll try another recipe tomorrow