The easiest and quickest tyropitakia (Greek individual cheese pies)

Sometimes recipes can be quite simple, as simple as they can get really. That doesn’t mean they are less delicious or that they lack in flavor or panache. A recipe doesn’t have to be difficult, laborious or extravagant to be worthwhile. There are times when efficiency, swiftness and simplicity of ingredients, is key.

Greek cuisine is like that many times, especially when it comes to mezedes. Mezedes are small, simple dishes made to accompany or prelude the main dish, or to accompany a glass of beer, ouzo or wine. This one is such a mezes and yet another version of tyropita, cheese pie.

In Greece, tyropites can be made with all sorts of dough. Sfoliata (puff pastry), kourou (yoghurt pastry) and of course phyllo. Phyllo is the most widely used dough in Greece for pies (phyllo / φύλλο is a Greek word which means leaf). There are many types of phyllo in Greece; the paper thin type which is normally used to make sweets like saragli, baklava or galaktoboureko, the slightly thicker but still very thin phyllo (called kroustas in Greek) used both for savory and sweet pies, and then there’s the thicker phyllo (horiatiko/rustic phyllo) which is mainly used for more hearty savory pies like tyropites, spanakopites, hortopites (wild greens pies) or kreatopites (meat pies).

I make my own hand-rolled phyllo when I have time and I’m in the mood, which is by far the best, but most of the times, let’s not kid ourselves, I buy it ready made. This time, I used horiatiko phyllo, the thick one, to make these shallow-fried tyropitakia, possibly the most simple, easy pies that you can make. With a feta, egg and dried mint filling, they are fried in sunflower oil—although you can fry them in olive oil but they will be heavier— and they are incredibly delicious.

Rolled into a pipe-like shape (the musical instrument that is) called flogera in Greek, they are ultra crispy with the feta filling oozing out in all its exquisite saltiness, while the scent of mint tickles your nose. With a glass of ouzo or a beer, you have a perfect little Greek meze.

More Greek cheese pies:
Tyropita (cheese pie) with puff pastry
Tyropitakia with Greek yoghurt dough/kourou





Tyropitakia with horiatiko phyllo (Greek individual cheese pies with thick phyllo)

Try not to use the regular phyllo but search for the thick one. Regular phyllo will absorb more oil while frying and will be less crispy.

The way I roll the dough makes the tyropitakia even crispier, with many edges. Don’t worry about not being sealed at the ends. Rest assured there’s no danger of the filling spilling out, as long as you follow the instructions, or just look at the photos below.

Yield: 48 tyropitakia

Ingredients
12 sheets of phyllo (preferably the thick type)
500 g Greek feta, grated
2 medium-sized eggs
½ tsp dried mint
Freshly ground white pepper, 4-5 turns of the pepper mill
Sunflower oil for frying

Special equipment: wide frying pan, absorbent kitchen paper


Preparation
In a medium-sized bowl mix well feta, eggs, mint and pepper with a spoon.

Open up the package of phyllo and roll out the sheets. Cut them all at once in half lengthwise and then cut them in half crosswise to create 48 pieces about 20x17cm each.

Take each piece of dough and place 1 tsp of filling near one corner. Roll the phyllo like in the photos below. Brush the end corner with a little water so it sticks together and doesn’t open up while frying.

Fill the bottom of a wide frying pan with oil by 1-2 cm and place over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, fry the tyropitakia in one layer, 1 minute per side, until crispy and golden brown, being careful not to burn them.

Transfer them to a plate lined with kitchen paper to absorb the extra oil. Fry the rest of the tyropitakia.
Serve while warm.

Cherries (and apricots): the dessert

The hardest thing when dealing with cherries is the pitting part. I admire how the French add them to their clafoutis with their pits still in, adding a sense of danger to the innocent act of savoring a pie.

I prefer to err on the side of caution and pit them first. Being accident-prone, it is guaranteed that I will bite hard into one of them and break a tooth. Besides, pitting cherries gives me the opportunity to get lost in my own thoughts for a while, perhaps daydream about the flavor of what’s about to be cooked. That makes the repetitive act a touch more bearable.

I also love how the British and Americans use not only their cherries but all their summer stone fruits; adding them to the bottom of a pie dish, mixing them with sugar and lemon, topping them with some sort of pastry, either flaky, crumbly or otherwise, in order to create their signature pies, crumbles, cobblers and crisps. All types of baked fruit desserts that were unknown to me for the largest part of my life.

Now, I find myself smitten by them and by the fact that even though they are uncomplicated and quick to make, they produce the most flavorful of results. Like this crisp, or crumble, I really cannot understand what the difference is between the two, so let’s call it a crumble. A sweet cherry and apricot almond crumble that while it was baking in my oven the other day, I was filled with anticipation to taste it as my home was overtaken by tantalizing aromas.

When I took it out of the oven, the bubbling red juices from the fruits at the bottom had made their way to the top, piercing through the crunchy topping, creating an irresistible sight.

It may not look as pretty on the plate as a nice triangular piece of glossy, chocolate ganache tart, a fresh-berry tart with crème pâtissière or a puff pastry fruit tart, but as with many desserts containing cooked down, juicy fruits, it is messy, beautiful and oh so delicious.

The cherry juices fill the bottom of the dish and marry with those from the honeyed apricots producing a sweet and sharp symphony of flavors that along with the incredible fruity smell, the plump texture of the cherries and the tender, fleshy apricots, the crunchy, buttery topping with the deep flavor of dark sugar and the hint of gingery spice in the background, as well as the nutty flavor from the almonds, it’s enough to make you want to eat all of it on the spot. It’s a simple yet genius dessert.

Cherry and apricot almond crumble
Slightly adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Even though this dessert requires that you turn your oven on, it is really worth it even if it’s really hot where you are right now. Besides, it doesn’t take more that 15 minutes to prepare. Well, without counting the cherry pitting, but then again you can be brave and add them as they are. Just make sure you inform those who are going to eat it.

The apricots I used were a little on the sour side. If yours are sweeter, you can add less sugar to the filling or a little more lemon juice.

I served the crumble with crème fraîche as I prefer the tanginess that balances the sweetness of the dessert, but you can also serve it with vanilla ice cream or unsweetened whipped cream.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

for the almond crumble
80 g all-purpose flour
80 g caster sugar
80 g soft light brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of salt
80 g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
80 g blanched almonds, coarsely chopped

for the filling
450 g fresh sweet cherries, pitted
450 g fresh apricots, pitted and quartered
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon, grated
70 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or the scraped seeds of a vanilla bean)

Special equipment: cherry pitter, round baking dish 22 cm in diameter and at least 5 cm deep, rimmed baking sheet


Preparation

make the almond crumble
In a medium-sized bowl, add the flour, caster and light brown sugar, ginger, salt and whisk briefly to combine. Add the cold cubes of butter and with your fingertips, rub it in until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the chopped almonds and cut them into the mixture using a knife. Don’t work the mixture too much.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes, so the topping chills.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 190°C.

make the filling
In a large bowl, add the pitted cherries, the pitted and quartered apricots, lemon juice and grated zest, sugar, and vanilla bean paste (or scraped vanilla seeds). Mix well with a spatula until well combined and empty into your baking dish.

Take the topping out of the fridge and scatter it evenly over the fruit, pressing some together between your fingers to create small chunks that will become even more crispy once baked.

Place the baking dish on a thin, rimmed baking sheet to catch any fruit juices that might bubble over and place it on the low-medium rack of the preheated oven. Bake the crumble for 40-45 minutes until the fruits are bubbling and the topping is crunchy and golden brown.

Serve warm with crème fraîche, vanilla ice cream or unsweetened whipped cream.

This type of baked fruit dessert is usually eaten warm but I rather enjoy it cold as well, even straight from the fridge.

You can keep it in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, for a couple of days.

Dutch apple turnovers - Appelflappen

It’s cold outside these days, with rain that at times seems to go on forever.

It’s been dark, gloomy and for the most part, I enjoy it. I needed a change of seasons somehow, put on my woolen socks, stay in with a good book, turn on the oven and bake.

I’m baking quite a lot these days, whenever I can scare up some free time that is, because I’ve been pretty busy with work. One of the things I made was these Dutch pastries. When it comes to pastries, let me tell you, the Dutch are good. A testament to that is the Appeltaart (Dutch apple pie) but these puff pastry beauties are equally delicious.

These are the Dutch appelflappen (singular: appelflap) aka apple turnovers and they are little baked triangles of crisp puff pastry filled with grated apples, dark brown sugar and warming spices. They are traditionally drenched in icing sugar, the Dutch love their icing sugar on pastries, but they’re even more scrumptious when paired with a chantilly cream spiked with whiskey.

Apples, spices and single malt; it’s a match made in heaven, guaranteed to warm you up on a chilly autumn day.

Appelflappen (Dutch Apple Turnovers) with Whiskey Chantilly Cream

Apple season is here and you can take your pick with the apples you could use. I chose Goudrenet (a Dutch variety) but Granny Smith or any other type of good tart apple will do.
You can make these with homemade puff pastry or store-bought. Just make sure it is made with butter. It makes a difference.

Yield: 8 appelflappen

Ingredients

for the appelflappen
350 g (2 large) tart apples (Goudrenet or Granny Smith)
2 tablespoons soft dark brown sugar
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of grated nutmeg
1 sheet ready-made puff pastry (40 x 24 cm), defrosted

1 small egg, lightly beaten, for glazing the pastries
Icing sugar and cinnamon, for sprinkling over the pastries

for the whiskey cream
250 ml cream, full-fat (35%)
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons single malt whiskey

Special equipment: box grater, baking sheet, baking paper, pastry brush, stand or hand-held electric mixer


Preparation

for the appelflappen
Peel the apples and grate them coarsely into a bowl. Add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well with a spoon.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius / 290 Fahrenheit.
Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.

Lay the puff pastry on a piece of baking paper and cut it into 8 equal squares, trimming off any excess pastry. Place about 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of each square, fold it over to create a triangle and press edges together with a fork to seal. Transfer pastries onto the prepared baking sheet, brush them with the beaten egg and prick the tops with a fork.
Bake for about 20 minutes on the middle rack of the oven until golden-brown and puffed.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.

Serve sprinkled with some icing sugar and cinnamon, and a dollop of whiskey chantilly cream on the side.

Note: If you have any of the apple mixture leftover, don’t throw it away. It is delicious served on top of some thick Greek yoghurt. Even the syrup that will accumulate at the bottom of the bowl with the grated apples, sugar and spices is wonderful to drink as a liqueur of sorts.

for the whiskey cream
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and using a hand-held mixer), beat the cream and sugar with the whisk attachment on high speed until soft peaks form. Add the whiskey and beat until stiff peaks form.
Keep chantilly cream refrigerated until ready to use.

Pastourmadopitakia

Pastourmadopitakia means small pies made with pastourma (seasoned, air-cured beef) and they have been part of my family’s Sunday or celebratory feasts ever since I can remember. Either in the form of individual pies or the more traditional large rectangular pie that’s cut into square pieces for everyone to savor, baked or fried, made with traditional phyllo or sfoliata (puff pastry), pastourmadopitakia are part of my culinary heritage.

My mom made these while I was in Greece this May and that’s when I took these photographs. She always makes them for me whenever I visit home, she knows how much I crave and love them.

I made pastourmadopitakia the other day, just the way she makes them and they disappeared in a matter of minutes.

I hope you like them as much as we do.

On a different note: Google Reader is shutting down on July 1st which is only a few days away, and I'm really bummed about it cause I’m kind of attached to it. For those of you who follow this blog through RSS feed on Google Reader please make sure to transfer your feeds to another reader. I have been trying out a few and I found that the best ones are feedly and The Old Reader. Bloglovin’ is also easy to use and has been around for quite a while but it’s not my favorite. Make your choice soon; you don’t want miss the updates from all your favorite blogs.

See you again soon!

Pastourmadopitakia / Pites Kesarias (Greek Individual Pies with Pastourma)

This is one of the easiest recipes for Greek individual pies. If you can’t find pastourma where you live, well, use any other type of spicy cured beef you like. If you can’t find Greek Graviera cheese, use Gruyère.

Yield: 8 individual pies

Ingredients
1 sheet homemade puff pastry or ready-made puff pastry
8 slices of pastourma
1-2 vine-ripened tomatoes, finely sliced
100-150 g Greek Graviera cheese, coarsely grated
1 egg, lightly beaten, for glazing pies

Special equipment: box grater, pastry brush, baking sheet, baking paper


Preparation
Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius / 375 Fahrenheit.

Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.

Lay the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface so that the widest edge is facing you and cut the pastry into 4 long rectangles. Cut each rectangle into two shorter ones so that you end up with 8 pieces of dough.

Near the bottom edge of each piece of dough, add 1 folded slice of pastourma, 1 slice of tomato and some grated cheese. Fold the dough on top to create a pocket and crimp the edges with your fingers. Place the pie on the prepared baking sheet and continue making the rest.

Brush the tops of the pies with the beaten egg and place the baking sheet on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake the pies for about 25 minutes or until the pastry has puffed up and has taken on a golden color.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven, allow the pies to cool slightly and serve.

The Tyropita

I have no idea how I can successfully catch a cold, which of course develops into a full-fledged flu, the worst possible time when I’m incredibly busy and can’t afford to be sick. Yes, folks, let the complaining begin.

I have the flu, or to be perfectly honest, I’m almost over it because if I were smack in the middle of suffering from it, I wouldn’t be able to write a single word, let alone a whole blog post.

I believe I’m very easy-going when I’m sick. I’m high-maintenance the rest of the time so I give people around me a break when I’m under the weather. Ha! Honestly though, I just sit quietly on the couch, watching my tv shows and films, falling asleep, making my own cup of tea and soup, unlike some other people (let’s not name names) that demand to be waited on hand and foot when they have a plain cold.

But let’s get to the tyropita (τυρόπιτα / pronounciation: tee-roh-pee-tah), the Greek cheese pie, which is the reason I got off my cozy couch. The word tyropita is not a simple word in the Greek language. There’s not a single Greek out there who doesn’t have a very specific image of tyropita in their mind the second they hear the word.

It’s one of the most well-known pies in Greek cuisine (next to spanakopita), a pie that everyone knows how to make and that everyone certainly knows how to devour in record time. And of course everyone has their favorite kind, because yes, there are different kinds of tyropita. Those can either depend on the type of dough used (phyllo, kourou, puff pastry), or the type of cheese(s) used, the most common of course being feta.

My ideal tyropita is one made with puff pastry. That’s the way my mom always made it, and still does. I have no idea why she prefers sfoliata (Greek word for puff pastry) to the traditional Greek phyllo, I’ve never asked her, as I’ve never had any complaints. I greedily ate my piece every single time she prepared tyropita.

Whenever I make my own puff pastry, I always bake a tray of tyropita. I use feta, ricotta (anthotyro when I’m in Greece) and a béchamel sauce all mixed together to create the filling. The result is a salty and slightly sweet cheese pie with that incomparable flavor and texture of puff pastry encasing the cheeses. A flaky, golden-brown and buttery puff pastry that makes my tyropita the best there is.

Tyropita – Greek Cheese Pie

You can use either homemade puff pastry (like I did), or ready-made. Just make sure the store-bought one is made with butter and not vegetable fat.
Whichever kind of puff pastry you use, make sure to thaw it properly. Remove it from the freezer and place it in the fridge 24 hours before using it.

On cooking puff pastry: The bigger the change in temperature, the more dramatic the puff will be. If for example you take the rolled out pastry straight from the fridge and put it in a preheated oven, it will rise like crazy.
For this tyropita, once you assemble the pie, you must put it in the fridge for 30 minutes while you preheat your oven and then put it straight in.

The recipe for the béchamel sauce is the classic French one and it’s creamy and delicious and it’ll make your tyropita taste incredibly good.

Yield: 1 tyropita / 16 small pieces

Ingredients

for the béchamel sauce
250 ml fresh whole milk
20 g (1½ Tbsp) butter, unsalted
20 g (2 level Tbsp) all-purpose flour
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper

300 g feta (Greek of course), grated
250 g ricotta (or Greek anthotyro if you can find it), crumbled
Freshly ground white pepper
600 g homemade puff pastry or 2 large sheets of ready-made puff pastry

A little butter for greasing the pan

Special equipment: box grater, whisk, rolling pin (to roll out homemade puff pastry), baking pan/tray (34 x 28 cm)


Preparation

for the béchamel sauce
In a small, heavy-based saucepan, add the butter and melt over a low heat. Add the flour and using a whisk, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes until you have a white roux.
While whisking, pour the milk in the saucepan, turn heat up to medium and allow the mixture to come to the boil, whisking continuously to prevent lumps.
Once the béchamel comes to the boil, turn heat down to low and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring with the whisk every so often, until it thickens. You don’t want the sauce to be too thick though but a little runny so it can be easily mixed with the cheeses.
Season with salt to your liking, add a little white pepper and allow the sauce to cool.

In a large bowl, add the cooled béchamel, the two cheeses and a sprinkling of white pepper and mix with a spatula.

Grease the bottom and sides of your pan with butter.

If you’re using homemade puff pastry, take the dough and divide it into two equal pieces. Dust a clean work surface and the top of the dough with flour and using a rolling pin, roll out the first piece of dough into a rectangle, a little bigger than the size of the pan, with a thickness of 0.2-0.3 cm. The thickness of the puff pastry is important because it determines the baking time. Line the bottom of the pan with the dough (or the ready-made puff pastry), leaving an overhang on all sides and add the filling. Spread it around evenly with a spatula and grind some white pepper on top.
Roll out the second piece of dough (or use the ready-made puff pastry) and place it on top of the filling. Press together the two sheets of puff pastry at the edges of the tyropita and cut with a knife the extra overhanging dough, leaving just a little around the edges. Crimp up the edges of the puff pastry.
With a knife, score the pie, creating 16 equal-sized square pieces and score the crimped up edges as well.

Note: Don’t score all the way down to the filling because the cheeses will ooze out while baking.

Place the baking pan in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and preheat your oven to 185-190 degrees Celsius / 365-375 Fahrenheit.

Take the baking pan out of the fridge and place it straight on the middle rack of the oven. Bake the tyropita for 55-60 minutes until the dough puffs up and takes on a golden-brown color.

Take it out of the oven and allow it to cool. As it cools, the puff pastry will gradually deflate. Cut the tyropita into pieces and serve.

You can keep it in a cool place in your kitchen, covered lightly with aluminum foil for 1-2 days.