Gibanica (, ) is a traditional pastry dish popular all over the Balkans. It is usually made with cottage cheese and eggs. Recipes can range from sweet to savoury, and from simple to festive and elaborate multi-layered cakes. A derivative of the Serbo-Croatian verb gibati/гибати meaning "to fold; sway, swing, rock", the pastry was mentioned in Vuk Stefanović Karadžić's Serbian Dictionary in 1818 and by a Slovenian priest Jožef Kosič in 1828, where it was described as a special Slovenian cake which is "a must at wedding festivities and is also served to workers after finishing a big project". It is a type of layered strudel, a combination of Turkish and Austrian influences in different cuisines of the former Yugoslavia. Today the versions of this cake can be found in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, and other regions of the former Yugoslavia. Variants of this rich layered strudel are found in Hungary, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, and Syria. Gibanica may sometimes also refer to a walnut roll, which is a sweet bread with a spiral of walnut paste rolled up inside. Etymology In the vocabulary of the Yugoslav Academy, as well as in the etymological dictionary of Slavic languages, the word gibanica is a derivative of the Serbo-Croatian verb gíbati/гибати, which means "to fold; sway, swing, rock". There are also derivatives like the word /гибаничар – one who makes gibanica, one who loves to eat gibanica, and one who always imposes as a guest and at someone else's expense. Some believe that the word gibanica actually comes from the Egyptian Arabic gebna (جبنة), a type of soft white salty cheese used in making gibanica. Preparation The original recipe for Gibanica included traditionally homemade Phyllo dough and cow's milk cheese. Homemade cheese can be feta or sirene. The pie is usually made as gužvara (crumpled pie), so the phyllo dough in the middle is crumpled and filled. Besides cheese, the fill contains eggs, milk, kaymak, lard, salt and water. Also, stuffing may include spinach, meat, nettle, potato and onion. To speed up preparation, phyllo dough from a store can be used and sunflower oil or olive oil can be used instead of lard. Variants Many varieties of Gibanica and related dishes can be found throughout the Balkans; different gibanica are known as part of the national cuisines of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Italy, where it is