Meskhetian Khachapuri

The buttery, layered dough of Meskhetian, or penovani khachapuri speaks of the Ottoman influence in southern Georgia. Makvala makes an elaborate version using an unleavened flour and water dough that she stretches as thin and as wide as strudel, painting its layers with melted butter. The result is a light, airy dough somewhere between puff pastry and filo. To stretch it this thin she uses a customized round, raised board (pekhshumi) and a tapered rolling pin (ukhlavi).