Today I’m sharing the recipe for the breakfast of the Greek gods with you! I didn’t dare to share this recipe with you before, because I thought it would make you fat. And now I don’t think so anymore, because I made it again yesterday and guess what? So there was almost no butter in it! Milk, phyllo dough, corn flour, eggs, sugar and cinnamon… Technically speaking, it shouldn’t make you fat, so I’ll share it with you anyway, because you shouldn’t miss this in your life.
By the way, I wouldn’t defy my beautiful slim figure by accidentally eating the entire baking dish in one go. In Greece you have cozy breakfast cafes, such as Θείος Βάνιας (thíos Vánias, uncle Vanjas). There you can get tyropittes, cheese pies, and a whole variety of other pies with puff pastry, but filled with leek, spinach, minced meat and so on. And coffee of course!
But there is also something else for sale at these breakfast cafes and that is the sacred bougátsa (μπουγάτσα in Greek). For your convenience, it is also called galaktobóúreko (γαλακτομπούρεκο).
Bougatsa is … puff pastry, but an elongated package of filo pastry – not those square things that puff themselves up in the oven – filled with a cream, which somewhat resembles the cream from a tompouce. Only there is no butter in it and I am now going to tell you what it does contain and how to make it. Before I forget: it pairs up with a cup of cold chocolate, but in some parts of Greece coffee is also allowed.
Ingredients for an average baking dish:
- 1 liter of milk
- 100 grams of corn flour or corn semolina
- 4 eggs
- 175 grams white sugar (cane sugar makes the cake very stiff)
- a pack of filo pastry (8 to 10 leaves)
- 50 grams of real butter
- icing sugar and cinnamon powder
- medium-sized baking dish, preferably square (not necessary)
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 180°C. You pour 100 ml of milk into a cup and let the corn (semolina) flour dissolve in it. Mix the sugar with the eggs in a deep bowl until the mixture turns white and becomes airy. Then add the cornmeal mixture and stir or mix it well.
Pour the remaining 900 ml of milk into a saucepan and boil it. Then turn the heat to half and pour the butter and dough mixture into the milk. Let the mixture boil for a few more minutes, while stirring well with a whisk, until it becomes firm. Now remove the cream from the heat.
There are those enthusiasts who make puff pastry themselves. You need a special rolling pin for that: a Greek one, which I also saw in Algeria, so maybe they can be bought in a foreign store. This rolling pin consists of one piece, is half slimmer than a Dutch rolling pin and usually twice as long. I personally take the dough out of an elongated package of phyllo dough or filo dough. You need to let it unfreeze until it becomes soft so you can very carefully pull the leaves out of the root ball on which it sits.
When you have 10 leaves, put three on the bottom and then a layer of cream. Then two more leaves and a layer of cream and three more leaves on top. If you have 8, put two leaves each time and then add cream. I always spread a little butter on top of each layer of dough, including the top one. I do that with a special pastry brush. These brushes can be purchased in the supermarket or at a store with household items.
Then the whole thing goes into the oven, at 180° for 40 minutes. Then take it out and place it on the counter to cool for about 10 minutes. Now you cut it into square pieces of around 10 cm in length. Sprinkle with icing sugar and cinnamon powder, cut the bougatsa and eat it with a fork.
Καλή όρεξη! Kalí órexi – enjoy your meal and don’t forget the chocolate milk or coffee!
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