Bulgarian cheese pie with kefir

By Nik, founder of 東歐嚴選｜kefir.link and former chef · Updated 2 November 2026

Banitsa is Bulgaria's breakfast pie: thin sheets of filo brushed with whisked egg, scattered with salty white cheese, rolled up and coiled into a snail in the pan. Bulgarians buy it from the bakery or bake it at home, and eat it hot or cold with plain yogurt or ayran. Here milk kefir is the liquid in the filling and in the final pour, soaking the sheets before the pie goes into the oven.

A pie for every holiday

The name comes from a South Slavic root meaning “to fold”, and similar pies are made in North Macedonia and southeastern Serbia. In Bulgaria, banitsa with no filling named means the white-cheese kind, and a filling of cheese, eggs and soured milk is often called home banitsa. Each holiday has its own version: a sweet one and a nettle or spring-greens one at Easter, vegetable or fruit on Christmas Eve, and pumpkin or egg-and-cheese at Christmas. On New Year's Eve the classic cheese-and-egg pie hides lucky charms, traditionally dogwood twigs whose buds carry wishes for health, love and luck.

How eggs and kefir set the filling

Egg proteins firm up as they heat, the same principle that sets a custard, and that is what holds the cheese filling together. A banitsa soaked in a milky liquid needs egg, or the sheets turn gluey. This kefir version uses baking powder, which carries its own acid, so the kefir supplies the liquid while the powder gives the gentle rise.

Spirals, layers and filo in Taiwan

The snail coil is one traditional shape, but banitsa is also made as several small spirals or in flat layers like lasagna. Pumpkin, apple, spinach and leek are common fillings when cheese is not the plan. In Taiwan, frozen Greek filo is sold in 450 g boxes, with sheets thinner than spring-roll wrappers. Outside Bulgaria, Greek feta made from sheep's and goat's milk is the practical stand-in for Bulgarian white cheese, and it is sold chilled in Taiwan. Taste the cheese before adding any salt.