Flija

Ingredients

• 500 g plain flour
• 1 litre water
• 2 tsp salt
• 250 g butter
• 200 ml double cream
• 300 g kajmak, or thick clotted cream
• 400 g thick natural yoghurt, to serve
• 4 tbsp honey, to serve

Before you cook

• Whisk the flour, water and salt together in a large jug until you have a thin, lump free batter about the consistency of single cream.
• Leave the batter to rest for 30 minutes so the flour hydrates.
• Whisk the batter again and pass it through a sieve to catch any lumps.
• Melt the butter gently and stir in the double cream to make the basting mixture.
• Grease a round metal baking tin about 32 centimetres across.

Steps

1. Heat the oven grill to its highest setting and put the shelf about fifteen centimetres below the element.
2. Ladle batter into the tin in five or six thin spokes radiating out from the centre, leaving gaps between them.
3. Slide the tin under the grill for 4 minutes, until the spokes are set and freckled brown.
4. Take the tin out and brush the cooked spokes with the butter and cream mixture.
5. Ladle new spokes of batter into the empty gaps between the cooked ones.
6. Grill for another 4 minutes until these are set and browned.
7. Brush the new spokes with the butter mixture.
8. Ladle the next round of batter across the top, offsetting the spokes from the layer below.
9. Carry on grilling for 4 minutes, brushing with butter and adding a new offset layer, until all the batter is used up.
10. Check the tin every few layers and lower the shelf if the top is browning faster than it is setting.
11. Brush the finished flija generously with whatever butter mixture is left.
12. Cover the tin with foil and put it in the oven at 160C for 15 minutes so the layers steam and soften.
13. Take the foil off and rest the flija for 10 minutes.
14. Cut it into wedges like a cake, cutting all the way to the base of the tin.
15. Spoon kajmak over the warm wedges so it melts down between the layers.
16. Serve with cold yoghurt and honey on the side.