Greek Pastries, Part 2

My favorite Greek pastry (that I've had) is Galaktoboureko, which I've made with my boss a couple times now. A creamy, delicious semolina custard is wrapped up in layers of phyllo ('Gala' means milk in Greek. I think 'bourek' means pie). Sometimes it's made with lemon, sometimes with orange, sometimes a syrup is poured on top. The latest version we made was an orange custard with cinnamon sugar in the phyllo layers. It was to die for. Make it next time you go to a potluck or have friends over. Don't make it if you're alone- unless you're too skinny- because you'll eat it all and gain ten pounds.

 Picture taken from here.

The recipe:

4 C milk
1 1/2 C sugar
1 C + 2 T unsalted butter
Zest and juice of 1/2 orange
3/4 C semolina
4 egg whites, whisked until soft peaks form (be careful not to beat it too much- you don't want stiff peaks)
1/4 C vegetable oil
2 T ground cinnamon
1/2 package phyllo
3 T powdered sugar


1. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, and orange zest/juice. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Mix in semolina, and cook, stirring, until the mixture is thick, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat, and fold in the egg whites. Set the mixture aside to cool.


2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a small saucepan, melt remaining 1 C butter with the oil; use some of this mixture to brush a 9-inch round or square baking pan.  In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.

3. Unwrap the phyllo and top with one dry kitchen towel and one slightly damp towel, so the sheets don't dry out too much as you work. Working with one sheet of phyllo at a time, lay the sheets of phyllo so they fit tightly in the pan (filling the bottom of the pan and going up and over the sides) and there's a 1 1/2 inch flap sticking out over the top of the pan- you should use about three sheets of phyllo. Using a pastry brush, brush the phyllo with a generous amount of the butter mixture, then lightly sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Repeat until you have three or four good layers of phyllo and cinnamon sugar. 

4. Pour the custard into the phyllo-lined pan and spread evenly. Working with one layer at a time, fold those little phyllo flaps that you left sticking out toward the center of the pan and "glue" them down with the butter mixture. Add 2-3 of layers of phyllo/butter/cinnamon sugar to the top, so that the custard is totally enveloped.  Do not sprinkle the top layer with cinnamon sugar, or it'll burn. Prick all over with a fork, and bake (with a baking sheet below it to catch any drips) for about 45 minutes, until golden brown.  

5. Combine remaining tablespoon of cinnamon with the confectioners' sugar, and sprinkle over the surface of the phyllo when removed from oven- it'll form a nice crust. Let rest 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold- it's delicious however!

Greek Pastries

I work at Kafeneio (ka- (like in cat), fuh-knee-o), a Greek coffee shop that opened up in Salt Lake a little more than a month ago. How is a Greek coffee shop different than a regular neighborhood coffee shop? Mostly it's just that we have cute/dorky Greek god- and goddess-named lattes (like "Hera's Temper" or "Hermes' Wings"). But we also sell Greek coffee, which is the same as Turkish coffee, if you've had that: made in an ibrik (or briki) served with the grounds in the bottom. Old greeks still tell their fortunes with the grounds, similar to reading tea leaves.

Our briki

But the best part is that my boss, a very nice Greek lady, makes Greek pastries here in the shop. And yesterday she let me help her.

We made pasta flora, a simple pastry with apricot or strawberry jam covered in a lattice design. Then galaktoboureko, my favorite, a lemony custard wrapped in phyllo and topped with a honey lemon syrup and cinnamon.

Galaktoboureko (picture from Closet Cooking, a blog I like a lot).

But the best was making baklava. Easy but time consuming, baklava is layers and layers (and layers. I think the one I did last night had about forty) of flaky phyllo pastry, butter, and nuts. After baking, it's smothered in an orange and clove flavored syrup. Delicious!

You can do it, Brucey!

Remember that part in Matilda when Ms. Trunchbull makes Bruce Bogtrotter eat that entire chocolate cake? This weekend, for my brother JB's birthday, Luke and I made (what I think of as) Brucey's cake. It was a double layer cake with dark chocolate frosting, and was really moist and delicious. And because JB is a guy who appreciates pretty things, we put a ring of crystalized flowers around the top.

The recipe:

12 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
heaping 3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and lightly flour two 9-inch round cake pans. In a bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well incorporated. Beat in vanilla.
3. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating with buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape bowl as needed.
4. Pour batter into pans.* Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes before inverting cakes onto rack to cool completely.

*Our pans overflowed a little, so I'd suggest using all but about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of the batter.

For the frosting we used this recipe from Martha Stewart.


What I didn't know until today is that there is a recipe for Bruce Bogtrotter's cake in Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes.

Crystalizing flowers

I think it's cool that when I tell Luke that I've been learning about edible flowers, and now I want to use little paintbrushes to paint individual flower petals with egg whites and then sprinkle them with sugar, not only does he not think I'm an idiot, but he wants to do it with me. We candied/crystalized about a hundred little flowers, both cherry blossoms and forsythia. After the painting/sugaring, the flowers have to dry for at least twenty-four hours.


A lot got ruined trying to take them off the pan the next day (next time we'll use wax paper), but we still had enough to make spring cupcakes for some friends. Paired with cupcakes and frosting, you couldn't really taste the light floral flavor, and they just tasted like sprinkles (for a full tutorial on crystalizing flowers, go here).



I think it'll take a few more times before we really master it, but I'm excited to try crystalizing other flowers (like johhny jump-ups!), and just exploring edible flowers in general. Tulips supposedly taste kind of like cucumbers or fresh peas, marigolds like saffron, bachelor's buttons like clove, etc. etc. There's a lot to learn.

Sourdough: attempt #2

A relative success! I tried a sourdough french bread, and we liked the hard crust and soft middle. Still needs a bit of tweaking (I'm reading up on how to make it more sour), but I'm pretty impressed with it.

I think I'm a pretty good cook, but where I need a lot of work is in baking. I almost never bake anything, and when I do, it's nothing fancy, nothing especially delicious. My friend Ben gave me a sourdough starter that dates back a hundred and fifty years, or something crazy like that. On Sunday I tried my first batch of sourdough bread, and it was bad. Mediocre flavor, terrible texture. I'm going to try again tomorrow and hope for something more like this:

And less like the spongy brick I threw to the compost pile without even finishing a piece.

I'm looking forward to warm summer nights with fruit and freshly-baked bread for dinner.

Truffles

For Valentine's Day, my mom and sisters and I made truffles for friends. The best were the oreo (Luke said he was 'ridiculously impressed' with them), but we also made white chocolate lime coconut that were very good.

Making truffles was fun, and way easier than I thought it would be. Luke and I moved over the weekend, and are going to make up a couple batches to bring to our new neighbors.

Gooseberry

I baked a gooseberry pie before coming to school today. I haven't ever had one before, but based on the little finger-licks I got while making it, I think it's going to be yummy. I'm looking forward to eating it with my best friends Drew and Whitney tonight when they come over to play cards.