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.

Flourless dark chocolate and demerara sugar cake with pomegranate seeds (GF)

Happy New Year, friends. May 2015 be a healthy, joyous and lucky year for all, with lots of fun times and of course, delicious food.

I wanted to start off 2015 with a dessert that combined chocolate, my eternal love, and the pomegranate, a fruit that symbolizes luck, prosperity and good fortune in Greek culture; this one proved to be the ideal one.

It is a flourless cake with the rich, deep flavor of dark chocolate, some bitterness coming from the addition of freshly brewed espresso coffee, a hint of vanilla and the caramel-y flavor of demerara sugar that makes it particularly delicious.

Being not overly sweet, it welcomes the generous sprinkling of icing sugar that transforms its crackly top into a snowy landscape. The addition of the small, burgundy, sparkly jewels in the form of pomegranate seeds that decorate the top, adds another level of sweetness as well as an acidic undertone.

It is dense but not stodgy, almost like a fudgy brownie but much lighter, softer and far tastier, very moist with crackly, crispy top and edges, and with the plump pomegranate seeds giving extra crunchiness. Served with a generous dollop of freshly whipped cream sweetened with a little icing sugar, it is utterly scrumptious.

Chocolate and pomegranate is a beautiful combination and starting the New Year with these flavors was a choice that proved to be absolutely brilliant.

Let’s make this year a good one by being kind, generous and loving to ourselves and others. Let this be the year that all of our dreams come true.

Flourless dark chocolate and demerara sugar cake with pomegranate seeds (Gluten-free)

Demerara sugar is raw, cane sugar that gives desserts and cakes a special flavor and it is also healthier than white, refined sugar.

Use chocolate whose flavor you enjoy because the cake will taste very much like that chocolate. Make sure it is of good quality and I would suggest you don’t use a chocolate that has less than 70% cocoa solids.

If you don’t have an espresso machine, you can use a one-serving packet of espresso powder dissolved in 100ml boiling water.

I would strongly suggest you make the cake a day before you want to serve it as it is most delicious the next day.

Yield: 1 cake / 8-10 pieces

Ingredients
250 g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces, plus extra for greasing the pan
250 g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), cut into pieces
100 ml freshly brewed strong espresso coffee
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
180 g demerara sugar (raw cane sugar)
4 large eggs

Icing sugar, for dusting the cake
The seeds of 1 pomegranate

for the chantilly cream (to serve with the cake)
250 ml cream, full-fat (35%)
1 Tbsp icing sugar

Special equipment: stand mixer or hand-held mixer, springform round pan 22-23 cm, baking paper, baking tray


Preparation
Place the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (bain-marie) and melt, stirring often with a spatula. The bottom of the bowl must not come in contact with the simmering water otherwise the chocolate will burn.
Remove the bowl from the top of the pan and add the espresso coffee, the vanilla and the salt and mix using a spatula. Set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large bowl), add the sugar and eggs and beat using the whisk attachment (or with a hand-held electric mixer) on high speed, for 4-5 minutes, until the mixture reaches the ribbon stage (when you lift up the beater and let the mixture drip inside the bowl, you can see a ribbon forming on the surface and it stays for a few seconds before it disappears inside the rest of the mixture). The mixture should triple in volume and should be very light and fluffy.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 175°C.
Butter the bottom and sides of the springform pan very well and line the base with a piece of baking paper (click here to see how to make a baking paper circle).

Pour slowly the chocolate mixture in the egg mixture and fold it in using a spatula, being careful not to deflate the eggs.
Empty the batter gently into the prepared baking pan. Place the pan inside a square baking tray to prevent any liquid (or butter) spilling out into your oven (you may want to line the baking tray with a piece of aluminum foil) and place on the low rack of the preheated oven.

Bake cake for 30 minutes, and then transfer it to the middle rack of the oven and bake for a further 10-15 minutes or until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
You will notice that during baking the cake will puff up and once you take it out of the oven it will sink and crack on top. That is perfectly okay, that’s how it should be.

Remove it from the oven and transfer the baking pan on a wire rack so that the cake cools completely. Don’t remove the sides of the pan while the cake is still hot, otherwise the sides will collapse. Run a knife around the edges of the cake to ensure that the cake is not stuck and then remove the sides of the pan carefully. You may serve the cake on the base of the pan or remove it. Be careful though because it may break.

Prepare the chantilly cream by whipping the cream and the icing sugar with a hand-held mixer or in a stand mixer until stiff peaks form. You can keep it in the fridge for 2 days, covered with plastic wrap.

When you want to serve the cake, dust it with icing sugar and decorate with the pomegranate seeds. Serve cut into pieces with a dollop of chantilly cream.

In case you have leftover cake, remove the pomegranate seeds from the top because they will make it soggy. Place seeds in a bowl and refrigerate them.
You can keep the cake covered, at room temperature, for 3 days.