Adjarian Khachapuri Recipe
აჭარული ხაჭაპური
A home khachapuri recipe for the Adjarian cheese boat: soft yeast dough, a bubbling filling of two cheeses, and an egg yolk and butter stirred in at the table.
Recipe by the Maspindzeli team in Tbilisi · Updated 18 Oct 2026 · From Adjara and its capital, Batumi
Full recipe with the timeline, timers and US measures: maspindzeli.ge/recipes/adjarian-khachapuri/
This khachapuri recipe makes Adjarian khachapuri, the open, boat-shaped cheese bread from Adjara on Georgia's Black Sea coast. A soft yeast dough is rolled into a boat with thick rims, filled with salty cheese and baked in a very hot oven. It comes to the table with a raw egg yolk and a piece of butter in the middle, which you stir into the cheese while it is still bubbling. In Georgia you will also see it written Acharuli or Adjaruli khachapuri.
The name joins khacho (curd cheese) and puri (bread), and almost every Georgian region bakes its own version. The Adjarian one is the best known abroad and the dish Batumi is famous for. A popular story links the shape to the boats of Adjara's sailors and fishermen, with the yolk as the sun over the sea; it is a good image, but nobody can say for certain how the shape began. Since 2019 the craft of baking khachapuri has been protected as part of Georgia's intangible cultural heritage.
Georgians eat it hot, straight from the oven, usually as a meal on its own with a salad or pickles. One boat is a lot of bread and cheese, so friends often share one and order something green on the side.
Timeline: what to do, and when
2 h from start to table · 45 min hands-on · 1 h 10 min waiting
Each bar is one step. Hands-on Waiting, while the oven, the pot or the dough does the work. Steps that sit inside a wait are done in parallel.
Recipe
Adjarian Khachapuri
Ingredients
Dough
Cheese filling
To finish
Amounts are scaled. Times stay about the same, but a bigger pot takes a little longer to come to the boil.
Contains: gluten (wheat), milk, egg.
You will need
- Large bowl
- 2 baking trays (or 1 tray and a pizza stone)
- Baking paper
- Rolling pin
- Coarse grater
- Oven (as hot as it goes, ideally 240 to 250 °C / 465 to 480 °F)
Method
- Start the dough15 min hands-on· start here
Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm milk and leave for 5 minutes, until it looks foamy. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl, pour in the milk and the oil and bring it together. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes until smooth, soft and only slightly tacky; add a spoonful of flour only if it really sticks.
- Let it rise1 h waiting· starts at +15 min
Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it and leave it somewhere warm for about 1 hour, until doubled in size. In a cool kitchen it can take up to an hour and a half.
- Make the filling10 min hands-on· starts at +25 min, during step 2
Grate the sulguni (or mozzarella) and crumble the Imeretian cheese (or feta) into a bowl. Beat the egg, set a spoonful aside for brushing and mix the rest into the cheese with a fork. Add the milk only if the mix feels dry: it should press together into a soft, damp mass.
- Heat the oven30 min waiting· starts at +1 h 10 min, during step 2
Put two baking trays (or a tray and a pizza stone) in the oven and heat it to 240 °C / 465 °F (220 °C / 430 °F fan), or as hot as it goes up to 250 °C / 480 °F. A fully hot oven crisps the base and rims before the cheese turns oily.
- Shape the boats15 min hands-on· starts at +1 h 15 min
Knock back the dough and divide it into 4 pieces of about 210 g. On a floured worktop roll each into an oval about 30 by 20 cm and 5 mm thick, and lay it on a sheet of baking paper. Put a thin line of filling along both long edges, roll those edges tightly towards the middle to make two fat rims with a gap of about 7 cm between them, then pinch and twist the ends into points. Spoon the rest of the filling into the middle, level with the rims.
- Rest and brush10 min waiting· starts at +1 h 30 min
Leave the boats loosely covered for 10 minutes so the dough puffs a little. Just before baking, brush the rims with the egg you kept back.
- Bake15 min waiting· starts at +1 h 40 min
Slide the boats on their paper onto the hot trays, two per tray. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, swapping the trays halfway, until the rims are deep golden and the cheese is bubbling with a few brown spots.
- Add the yolk3 min hands-on· starts at +1 h 55 min
Take the boats out, press a small hollow into the centre of the cheese with a spoon and slide an egg yolk into each. Return them to the oven for 1 to 2 minutes, just until the yolk is warm and glossy but still runny.
- Butter and serve2 min hands-on· starts at +1 h 58 min
Put a piece of cold butter next to each yolk and bring the boats to the table at once, while the cheese is still bubbling.
About 1,200 kcal per boat (a full meal; often shared). This is an estimate from standard values for the ingredients, not a lab figure.
Use a fork to work the yolk and butter through the molten cheese the moment it reaches the table, so the egg turns into a creamy sauce. Then tear off pieces of crust from the rims, starting at the pointed ends, and dip them into the middle. Work your way in until only the soft, cheesy base is left and finish that with a knife and fork, or simply with your hands as most Georgians do.
Tips, swaps and variations
Tips from your host
- Get the oven as hot as it will go and heat the trays with it. A pale, soft base is the most common home problem.
- Roll the rims tightly and twist the ends firmly, or the boat opens up in the oven and the cheese runs out.
- Keep the filling level with the rims. Overfilled boats boil over and the yolk has nowhere to sit.
- Georgian cheeses and feta are already salty, so taste the filling before you even think about adding salt.
- If you only have one tray, bake two boats at a time. In Georgia nobody minds eating the first pair while the second bakes.
- Separate the yolks shortly before baking and keep each one in half of its shell, so it slides in cleanly.
Variations and swaps
- Outside Georgia: for 4 boats use 400 g low-moisture mozzarella and 200 g feta in place of the two Georgian cheeses. Mozzarella gives the stretch, feta the salty tang.
- For a milder, softer filling, replace some of the feta with well-drained ricotta or cottage cheese.
- Many cafés crack in a whole egg rather than just the yolk. Give it 3 to 4 minutes in the oven so the white sets.
- Some home cooks make the dough with part matsoni (Georgian yoghurt) or plain yoghurt in place of some of the milk, for a softer crumb.
- The same dough and cheese make the round khachapuri of other regions: imeruli is closed with the cheese inside, megruli has another layer of cheese baked on top.
Serve it with
- A salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and fresh herbs
- Georgian pickles (mzhave)
- Cold beer or a Georgian fruit lemonade
Make ahead and storage
Khachapuri is best eaten within minutes of baking. You can make the dough up to a day ahead: after kneading, cover the bowl and keep it in the fridge, then leave it at room temperature for about an hour before shaping. The filling keeps covered in the fridge for a day. Leftover boats are best without the egg; reheat them in a 180 °C / 355 °F oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
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