Тутманик — Print Recipe

A pull-apart bread layered with generous amounts of sirene cheese and yogurt, baked until golden on top and gooey with melted cheese inside. Bulgaria's ultimate cheese bread.

Ingredients

500g all-purpose flour
7g dry yeast
200ml warm milk
1 egg
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
300g sirene cheese, crumbled
100g Bulgarian yogurt
50g butter, melted
1 egg yolk for glaze

Instructions

1 Dissolve yeast in warm milk with sugar. Let it foam for 10 minutes. Mix flour and salt, add the yeast mixture, egg, and oil. Knead into a soft dough.
2 Let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 hour until doubled in size.
3 Mix crumbled sirene cheese with yogurt to create the filling.
4 Divide dough into 8-10 pieces. Roll each piece into a thin circle, brush with melted butter, and spread a generous layer of cheese-yogurt filling.
5 Stack the filled circles in a greased baking pan, layering them slightly offset so the bread can be pulled apart after baking.
6 Brush the top with egg yolk wash. Bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes until golden brown on top. Serve warm while the cheese is still gooey.

Did You Know?

In Bulgarian villages, tutmanik was traditionally baked in a wood-fired oven the morning after bread-making day, using leftover dough and whatever cheese was on hand.