Stage 1 – Create your Slurry!

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together cottage cheese and goat cheese until mixed well and creamy. It’s actually easiest here to use a fork
3. Add egg and whisk through cheese thoroughly. If you’re scaling up the recipe and using more eggs, only add in one egg at a time and whisk each one thoroughly
4. Pour olive oil and whisk thoroughly, noticing a slightly runnier consistency coming to the mixture
5. Pour milk and whisk thoroughly, with mixture becoming even more runny
6. Add club soda and whisk until you get a bit of a slurry

Stage 2 – Line the Bottom of Your Baking Dish

1. Line baking dish (we used 9-inch diameter casserole pan) with olive oil
2. Take phyllo dough out of the fridge and remove from packaging. Be careful because now it will start to dry very quickly
3. Layer bottom of baking dish with at least two layers of phyllo dough sheets to create a bottom crust for your cheese pie. Allow for some of dough to flow over the edges (it will be folded up into the center later)

Stage 3 – Adding your Guzvar

1. Tear off sheets of phyllo dough and dip into the slurry. Start by placing wet sheets of dough in the outside of the baking dish and moving inward.
2. Continue adding guzvar to inside of baking dish until the entire surface area of your cheese pie is covered
3. Fold edges of bottom crust back over into the center of the dish, covering the guzvar. Top with another fresh sheet of phyllo dough

Stage 4 – Bake your Gibanica!

1. Add water to the emptied bowl of slurry so as to “flavor” the water
2. With your hand, sprinkle water over top of dough crust and around the edges of your cheese pie. Also drizzle some olive oil as well (this will help the crust brown)
3. Let your cheese pie sit and soak for 5-10 minutes before putting in the oven
4. Cook the gibanica until golden brown, which will be ~45 minutes