Daktyla

The ends pinched shut before frying, because the filling boils and will push its way out of an open one.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter).

Ingredients

the filling

• 200 g blanched almonds, coarsely chopped
• 100 g coarse semolina
• 80 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoons water

to assemble

• 12 sheets filo pastry
• 100 g butter, melted
• oil, for frying, about 4 cm depth

the syrup

• 300 g sugar
• 250 ml water
• 1 cinnamon stick
• a strip of lemon peel
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method

1. THE ENDS ARE PINCHED SHUT BEFORE FRYING, because the filling boils and will push its way out of an open one. The name means fingers and the shape is a tube, which is the problem: in four centimetres of hot oil the two tablespoons of water in the filling turn to steam, the semolina swells, and anything not closed at both ends becomes a nozzle. The filling sprays out, burns in the oil, and the finger collapses into a flat empty tube. Rolled with the sides folded IN first and then the two ends pinched hard between finger and thumb, the steam has nowhere to go and puffs the pastry instead.
2. THEY ARE FRIED AND NOT BAKED, AND THE DISTINCTION IS NOT COSMETIC. Filo in hot oil blisters into separate crisp layers in ninety seconds. Baked, the same roll goes crisp but flat and the layers stay stuck together. Oil is also why the ends must be sealed; a baked one leaks much more slowly.
3. THE SYRUP IS COLD AND THE PASTRY IS HOT. This is the rule for every syrup pastry and it is the one most often got backwards. Hot syrup on hot pastry is absorbed all the way through and the thing goes limp and sweet to the centre. Cold syrup hitting a hot crisp surface is taken up only in the outer layers, so the middle stays crisp -- which is the whole contrast. So the syrup is made FIRST and chilled while everything else is done.
4. THEY ARE DIPPED, NOT SOAKED, AND LIFTED STRAIGHT OUT. Fifteen or twenty seconds, turned once, and onto a rack. Left in the syrup they are a sponge within two minutes.
5. THE SEMOLINA IS WHAT STOPS THE FILLING BEING WET. Almonds and sugar alone liquefy in the heat. Coarse semolina absorbs the water and swells into a soft paste that holds together, and coarse rather than fine because fine goes pasty.
6. The syrup made FIRST: sugar, water, cinnamon stick and lemon peel simmered 10 MINUTES, the lemon juice stirred in, then CHILLED completely.
7. The filling mixed: chopped almonds, semolina, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and the 2 tablespoons of water. Left 10 minutes to swell.
8. One filo sheet laid out, brushed with melted butter, and cut in half.
9. A line of filling laid along one short edge, leaving 3 cm clear at each side.
10. THE SIDES FOLDED IN over the ends of the filling, then rolled up tightly into a finger.
11. BOTH ENDS PINCHED HARD between finger and thumb to seal them.
12. All 24 rolled and sealed before any are fried.
13. The oil heated to 4 cm, to about 180°C -- a scrap of filo should sizzle at once.
14. Four or five fried at a time, 90 SECONDS, turned once, until deep golden and blistered.
15. Lifted out and drained 20 seconds on a rack.
16. DIPPED while still HOT into the COLD syrup, 15 to 20 SECONDS, turned once, then lifted straight out onto a rack.
17. Served at room temperature. They keep 3 days and the middle stays crisp for about one.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Cyprus · All recipes