cook.

Flia

Name: Flia
Total time: 150 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Kosovar
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour; 900 ml water; 2 tsp salt; 300 ml double cream; 150 g butter, melted; 200 g kajmak or clotted cream, to serve; 300 g thick yoghurt, to serve

Rings of thin batter built up one at a time under a hot lid until it becomes a striped cake...

Ingredients

400 g plain flour

900 ml water

2 tsp salt

300 ml double cream

150 g butter, melted

200 g kajmak or clotted cream, to serve

300 g thick yoghurt, to serve

Method

Whisk the flour, water and salt into a thin batter, about the consistency of single cream, and leave it to stand for 20 minutes. Lumps will show as pale spots in the finished stripes.

Heat the oven to 220°C with a heavy, shallow oven-proof pan inside it. The pan must be hot before the first layer goes in.

Brush the hot pan with melted butter and spoon the batter on in concentric rings, leaving gaps between them. Do not spread it - the rings are what make the stripes.

Bake for 6-8 minutes until that layer is set and just colouring at the edges.

Add the next layer in rings that fall between the previous ones, brush with butter, and bake again. The alternating gaps are what build the pattern.

Repeat for 10 to 12 layers, brushing butter between each. It takes about two hours and there is no shortening it; layers added before the last one sets run together into one thick pancake.

Pour the cream over the top after the final layer and bake 10 minutes more, until it is absorbed and the surface is golden.

Rest it for 15 minutes, then cut it into wedges so the stripes show on the cut face.

Serve warm with kajmak and yoghurt.