Georgian Adjaruli Khachapuri with Molten Cheese, Runny Egg and Butter

Make the dough: whisk the yeast and sugar into the warm milk and water and let it foam for 10 minutes. Combine with the flour, salt and olive oil and knead 8 minutes into a smooth, soft dough. Cover and prove in a warm place for 1 to 1.5 hours, until doubled.

Ingredients

• For the dough (makes 4 boats):
• 400g strong white bread flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 200ml warm milk
• 60ml warm water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• For the filling:
• 300g sulguni cheese, grated (or 200g low-moisture mozzarella + 100g feta)
• 150g imeruli cheese or extra mozzarella
• To finish:
• 4 fresh egg yolks (1 per boat)
• 4 small pats of butter
• 1 beaten egg, for glazing the crust

Instructions

1. Make the dough: whisk the yeast and sugar into the warm milk and water and let it foam for 10 minutes. Combine with the flour, salt and olive oil and knead 8 minutes into a smooth, soft dough. Cover and prove in a warm place for 1 to 1.5 hours, until doubled.
2. Mix the grated cheeses together in a bowl. If using feta or mozzarella, taste — it should be pleasantly salty; this is the heart of the dish.
3. Knock back the dough and divide into 4. Roll each piece into an oval about 25cm long.
4. Pile a quarter of the cheese down the centre of each oval. Roll the two long sides inward toward the cheese to form thick rolled rims, then pinch and twist the two ends together tightly to make the pointed 'bow and stern' of a little boat. The cheese should sit in an open channel down the middle.
5. Transfer the boats to a lined baking tray. Brush the rolled rims with beaten egg for a glossy crust.
6. Bake in an oven preheated to 230°C (450°F) for 12-15 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the cheese is bubbling and molten.
7. Pull the tray out, and quickly make a small well in the centre of the molten cheese in each boat. Slide a raw egg yolk into each well and add a pat of butter alongside. Return to the oven for just 1-2 minutes — you want the yolk warmed but still completely runny.
8. Serve immediately, while everything is molten. The proper Georgian way to eat it: tear off a pointed end of the bread, use it to stir the runny yolk and butter into the hot cheese until silky, then dip and scoop your way down the boat.
9. Adjaruli khachapuri comes from Adjara, the lush Black Sea region of western Georgia, and its unmistakable boat shape is said to evoke the fishing boats of the Adjaran coast — the golden cheese the sea, the egg yolk the setting sun. Khachapuri in some form is the national dish of Georgia, so beloved that economists there track a 'Khachapuri Index' to measure inflation. But the Adjaruli version, eaten molten and shared straight from the table, is the most theatrical and the most loved: a vessel of bread, cheese, butter and egg that you build into one glorious silky bite at a time. No Georgian supra feast is complete without it.