Galaktoboureko

A hot semolina custard poured into filo and baked, so the pastry sets around a filling that is already thick.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

For the custard

• 1.5 litres whole milk
• 180 g fine semolina
• 200 g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 100 g butter
• 1 vanilla pod or 2 teaspoons extract
• zest of 1 lemon

For the pastry

• 400 g filo pastry
• 150 g butter, melted

For the syrup

• 400 g caster sugar
• 350 ml water
• 1 strip lemon peel
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method

1. THE CUSTARD GOES IN HOT AND ALREADY THICK. This is not a pie filled with something that sets in the oven: the semolina is cooked on the hob until it holds the spoon, and the oven only browns the pastry and finishes the egg. Poured in loose, it soaks through the base sheets and the bottom is raw pastry in sweet milk.
2. AND THE SYRUP IS COLD ONTO HOT, the same rule as the other filo dessert on this site, for the same reason. Make it first and let it go completely cold.
3. Syrup: sugar, water and peel boiled 8 minutes, lemon juice in, then cooled completely and the peel removed.
4. Milk, vanilla and lemon zest brought to just below boiling.
5. Semolina and sugar whisked in, off the boil, then the pan returned to a LOW heat and stirred constantly 8 to 10 minutes. It will thicken suddenly near the end. It should hold a spoon upright.
6. Off the heat, butter stirred in until it disappears.
7. Left 10 minutes to cool slightly -- not cold, but no longer scalding -- then the eggs beaten in ONE AT A TIME, fast. Straight into a boiling custard they scramble.
8. A deep tin buttered. Seven sheets of filo laid in, each brushed with butter, overhanging generously. The rest kept under a damp cloth.
9. The hot custard poured in and levelled.
10. The overhanging edges folded in over it, then five more sheets on top, each buttered, tucked down the sides.
11. SCORED INTO PORTIONS THROUGH THE TOP LAYERS ONLY, not to the base -- unlike baklava, because here the custard would run out of the cuts.
12. Baked at 170C for 1 hour until deep gold and firm in the centre.
13. Straight out of the oven, the cold syrup ladled over slowly. It will hiss.
14. Left 4 hours at least before cutting through, and never refrigerated.

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 Greece · All recipes