Gibanica

The story

Gibanica is the cheese pie of Serbian home baking: thin sheets of dough layered or crumpled with white cheese, eggs and fat, then baked until puffed and golden. The name is usually traced to the verb gibati, to fold or sway, and the pie was already listed in Vuk Karadžić's Serbian Dictionary of 1818. It is usually made as gužvara, or crumpled pie, in which each sheet is dipped in the filling and bunched into the pan rather than laid flat. The original version used homemade sheets and added milk, kajmak and lard to the filling; today many cooks save time with ready-made sheets and sunflower oil. In Serbia it is eaten for breakfast, as an appetizer or snack, and at dinner, served hot or cold. It is common at Orthodox Christmas, Easter and the slava, and an 1828 account calls it a must at weddings and a treat for workers who had finished a big job. The town of Mionica baked a gibanica of more than 1,000 kilograms in 2007, using about 330 kilograms of cheese and 3,300 eggs, and Bela Palanka has held a gibanica festival since 2005. Serve it warm with a glass of plain yogurt for a winter breakfast or brunch.