Cel­e­brate Jew­ish Book Month with #30days30authors! JBC invit­ed an author to share thoughts on #Jew­Lit for each day of Jew­ish Book Month. Watch, read, enjoy, and dis­cov­er! 

Today, Israeli celebri­ty chef Gil Hov­av, author of Can­dies From Heav­en, tells us about grow­ing up in Jerusalem and shares a bore­ka recipe. 

Bourekas Recipe

Excerpt­ed from Can­dies from Heaven

By Gil Hov­av, Toad Pub­lish­ing (2017)

Ingre­di­ents

• 4 cups flour
• 200 g margarine
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 yogurt
• 1 tbsp salt

Fill­ing

• 2 large eggplants
• 8 oz crum­bled feta cheese
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper

Brush­ing

• beat­en egg yolk with 2 tbsp water
• sesame

• Pre­pare the dough a day ear­li­er: Place all the ingre­di­ents in a food proces­sor and mix to a uni­form dough. Roll into a big ball, place on a flat dish, cov­er with plas­tic wrap and leave in the refrig­er­a­tor overnight.
• The next day, remove from the refrig­er­a­tor and let the dough reach room tem­per­a­ture (oth­er­wise, it will be impos­si­ble to roll).
• Mean­while, roast the egg­plants on the stove or in an oven until their peel black­ens. Peel and crush with a fork (woe be to any­one who crush­es in a food proces­sor!) togeth­er with the cheese. Beat the egg and add it to the fill­ing, togeth­er with salt and pep­per. Mix.
• Divide the dough into three balls. Roll each ball into a thin sheet, and use a glass to cut cir­cles in the dough. Col­lect what remains of the dough, roll it again and cut addi­tion­al cir­cles. Repeat until all the dough is used.
• Take a cir­cle of dough and place a heap­ing tea­spoon of fill­ing in the cen­ter. Dip a fin­ger in a cup of water and wet the edges of the cir­cle. Fold into the shape of a cres­cent and pinch to close well. Place on a bak­ing sheet lined with bak­ing paper. Do the same for the rest of the cir­cles. (One bak­ing pan will not be enough.)
• Brush the bourekas with egg wash and sprin­kle a bit of sesame. Bake at 350 degrees for about half an hour, until the bourekas are golden.