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50g unsalted butter
3 free range eggs
125g golden caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
90g semolina
1l milk, warmed
5 sheets of filo dough
3 oranges
440g caster sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
190ml water
This traditional Greek Galaktoboureko (custard cake) is made of filo dough and served with a sticky sweet orange syrup. The cake in itself isn't sweet, the orange syrup is. Sweet but with a soft hint of bitter, über good it tastes! The recipe is not difficult but the cake is somewhat laborious. Do make it anyway, because it's definitively worth the effort!
How to make Galaktoboureko
First you make the orange syrup
Scrub the oranges with water and vinegar, rinse well afterwards!
Grate the skin of the oranges but not the white, it's bitter!
Peel the oranges, slice them and remove the piths from the slices.
Put 190ml water on and dissolve the sugar in it.
Stir in the orange zest when the sugar is completely dissolved.
Squeeze two tablespoons juice from half a lemon.
Add the fresh lemon juice to the orange syrup.
Let the syrup simmer until it has thickened.
Add the orange slices to the syrup.
Let the syrup cool and put some slices aside.
How to make the filling and the cake
Defrost 5 sheets filo dough, grease a 20cm spring form tin.
Beat three egg yolks with the sugar and the vanilla creamy.
Warm the milk but do not let it come to a boil.
Weigh the right amount of semolina.
Melt the butter to brush on the filo dough when it goes into the mold.
Brush 4 sheets, place them diamond in the mold, the point sticking out.
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Beat the semolina and the milk gradually into the egg-mixture.
Keep beating until everything is fully incorporated.
Pour the mixture into a pan, let it thicken while stirring on low heat for 10 minutes.
In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites firm but not stiff.
Fold the egg whites quickly into the semolina-mixture.
Spoon the filling in the spring form, cover it with dough points.
Brush sheet 5 with butter and place it folded on top.
Do mind! The cake has to bake for 40-45 minutes. Check after 20 minutes if the cake isn't browning to quickly on top. If so cover the cake with aluminum foil, until it is cooked!
Slide the form in the oven and bake the cake for 40-45 minutes.
Let the Galaktoboureko cool in the spring form until it's lukewarm.
Serve the cake immediately and give the orange syrup on the side.
Galaktoboureko tastes just divine! Even better is the cake with a cup Greek coffee on the side. On how to make Greek coffee we'll come back to you later.
Tomorrow we're in Hungary...see you then!