I’m a huge fan of Olia Hercules; a Ukrainian cook who has a wonderful cookbook called ‘Mamushka’ which has some incredible recipes in, many of which I’ve tried and it’s been a fantastic introduction to Ukrainian and eastern European food in general. So I generally trust that her food is going to be delicious and she has never let me down so far.

This recipe is not Ukrainian in origin, but is from one of her other books that I don’t yet own, Kaukasis. It’s definitely on my ‘to buy’ list though!

Khachapuri is Georgian in origin and is a staple dish made from a bread dough shaped into a distinctive ‘canoe’ shape, with a filling of cheese and egg. The idea is to make sure that the egg is still soft, so you can dip into the yolk. These turned out really well and I was super happy with them!

Makes 6
For the dough
7g (¼oz) fast-action dried yeast
2 tbsp granulated sugar
200ml (⅓ pint) lukewarm water
450g (1lb) organic white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
10g (¼oz) fine salt

For the filling
100g quark or ricotta
250g (9oz) Ogleshield or raclette cheese
250g (9oz) feta cheese, crumbled
6 small eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
10g (¼oz) cold unsalted butter, sliced into 6 slivers

1 To make the dough, combine the yeast with the sugar, water, flour and salt in a bowl. Cover with clingfilm and either leave it in the refrigerator overnight or somewhere in your kitchen for an hour or so, until doubled in size.

2 For the filling, mix the cheeses with the single egg yolk and use a fork to mash well.

3 Preheat the oven to its highest setting and heat a couple of baking sheets – or a pizza stone if you have one.

4 Flour your work surface really well. Cover your hands in flour and scrape the dough on to your work surface. Briefly knead the dough in the flour if it’s too sticky.

5 Divide the dough into 6 pieces (each piece should be about 100g (3½oz). Roll out each piece of dough on a lightly floured work surface into a 18cm (7in) disc. Stretch either side of each disc, then pile 100g (3½oz) of filling in the centre, leaving a 5mm (¼ in) border around the edge.

6 Bring two sides of the dough up to meet in the middle and pinch a seam together to seal, similar to a cornish pasty. Press down with the flat of your hand to flatten it, then flip it over so the seam is face-down. With a sharp knife, make a slash along the middle of the dough and push the sides open to expose the filling. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling to make six khachapuris.

7 Slide the khachapuris on to the hot baking trays and bake for 10 minutes, or until the sides turn golden.

8 Crack an egg into the centre of each, then bake for a further 2–3 minutes.

9 To eat, melt a piece of butter into each egg yolk, pinch the dough from one end and use it to dip and mix the runny, buttery egg yolk into the filling.