Ravani

This is a very simple, tasty little sweet. You can have it to accompany your coffee or tea. Nice and easy to make, too!


Ingredients

1 kg all purpose flour
1/8 kg fine semolina
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
¾ litre extra virgin olive oil
½ kg sugar
¾ litre water
Juice from ½ lemon
Grated rind from ½ lemon

Preparation

Put the oil, water and half of the sugar in a pan and bring to the boil.

Add the semolina, flour, lemon juice and rind and the remaining sugar, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon.

Reduce the heat to the minimum.

When all the ingredients are well mixed, transfer to a shallow, greased oven dish.

The thickness of the mixture should be 3 – 4 cm.

Smooth the mixture so that it is even throughout the dish.

Sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.

Bake in a pre heated oven at 180 – 200 degrees for 1½ hours or until the edges turn golden brown.

You can find here more recipes likes this...

Authentic Greek Recipes

Greek Apple Pie (Milopita)

My mother had this recipe since she was a young girl and it was popular in the north of Greece at that time. It's more of an accompaniment to tea or coffee rather than a sweet at the end of a meal as other apple pies are. Of course, you can eat it with cream (I do!) and it has a nice 'squidgy' apple filling and soft dough.


Ingredients

For the dough
500g self-raising flour
250g fresh butter (quite soft)
2 eggs
200g sugar

For the filling
1 kg cooking apples
300g sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon


Preparation

Dough

Beat the butter and sugar in the mixer for 5 minutes.
Add the eggs and beat for another 5 minutes.
Change the mixer attachment to the one for dough and add the flour.
Beat until you have a pliable dough.
Cover the dough in cling film and leave in the fridge to rest for I hour.

Meanwhile, discard the peel and pips from the apples, thickly grate them and drain well.

Add the cinnamon and sugar and mix. (set aside 1 tablespoon of sugar aside to sprinkle on top at the end)

Butter a round oven dish.

Divide the dough into two and spread the one half in the bottom of the oven dish.

Spread the apple, cinnamon and sugar mixture on top of the dough.

Cut 2 sheets of kitchen grease paper into the shape of the oven dish.

Roll out the second half of dough and place it between the 2 sheets so that it is the shape of the dish and evenly flat.

Remove the top sheet and then turn the dough with the bottom sheet over on top of the filling so that it covers it and remove the other sheet.

Make sure the edges are even and prick it evenly on top with a fork.

Sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar evenly on top.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 40 minutes or until it turns golden.

When it is ready, cut it into squares.(see photo)

You can find here more recipes likes this...

Authentic Greek Recipes

Greek Halva (Halva Tis Rinas)

There are many types of halva, especially in the middle eastern countries. My own particular favourite is from Constantinople in Turkey, but obviously I can't put the recipe for that in a blog with authentic Greek recipes! In Greece we have Macedonian Halva from northern Greece - a hard halva - but the manufacturers keep the recipe a secret. We also have Halva tis Rinas (Rina's Halva) and that is the recipe that follows. Ideally it is served with some whipped cream on top, but that is optional.

Ingredients

400g fine semolina
6 medium eggs
120g grated almonds (with skin removed)
220g fresh butter at room temperature
150g sugar
100 ml milk
Grated rind from 1 lemon
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
2 teaspoons baking powder
250 ml double cream whipped (optional)

For the syrup

450g sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Peel from 3 – 4 lemons
600 ml water


Preparation

Separate the egg yolks from the whites.

Put the yolks and the sugar in a mixer and beat well.

Add the lemon rind and the milk and continue beating for a short time.

In another bowl mix the semolina, vanilla essence, baking powder and grated almonds and then add them to the yolk and sugar mixture.

Stir slowly.

Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and rinse and dry the mixer bowl well.

Put the egg whites in the mixer bowl and with the appropriate mixer head beat them into a loose meringue in the mixer.

Gradually transfer this to the first mixture and fold it in.

Grease a 30cm oven dish, 6cm deep and pour all the mixture into it.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes until it is a golden brown.

While the halva is in the oven, prepare the syrup - Put all the syrup ingredients in a pan and boil for 5 minutes.

Remove the lemon peel.

When you remove the halva from the oven, allow it to cool a little and then cut it into portions in the dish.

Pour the syrup all over it.

Cover it and allow it to rise while it is cooling.

When it has cooled completely, serve the portions with a little whipped cream on top.

You can find here more recipes likes this...

Authentic Greek Recipes

Greek Walnut Cake (Karidopita)

Old ladies from high Athens society used to sit in the tea and coffee houses eating this rich walnut cake as an accompaniment to their tea and gossip. It is delicious accompanied by whipped cream! The thing to be careful with is for it to be neither too dry nor too syrupy.

Ingredients

100g walnuts very roughly chopped
400g grated walnuts
400g all purpose flour
400g sugar
125g butter
8 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
4 tablespoons cognac
1 tablespoon crumbled rusks

For the Syrup

320g sugar
400ml water

Preparation

Beat the butter, sugar, cinnamon the yolks of the eggs in a mixer for 10 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl.

Clean the mixer bowl and beat the whites of the eggs in the mixer until it becomes a meringue.

Add half of the meringue to the yolk mixture.

Mix the baking powder with the 400g grated walnuts, gradually adding the flour.

Add this mixture to the egg yolk mixture along with the remaining meringue, stirring gently.

Transfer the whole mixture to a 30cm oven dish, 6cm deep, which has been well buttered, and the crumbled rusks sprinkled over the bottom.

Spread the 100g roughly chopped walnuts on top.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the sugar and water in a pan and boil for 15 minutes.

Remove the cake and cut into pieces with a bread knife and spread the syrup over the top, followed by the cognac.

 

You can find here more recipes likes this...

Authentic Greek Recipes

 

Greek Yoghurt Cake (Yaourtopita)

This is a refreshing and easily prepared cake for the summer months (or any other time of the year!) prepared with Greek strained yoghurt. Although it can be eaten warm straight from the oven, it is best eaten when it is cold.

Ingredients

400g fine semolina

400g sugar

500g Greek strained yoghurt

5 eggs

50g almonds very finely chopped

0.6g vanilla powder

1 tbsp baking powder

Grated peel from 1 lemon

Pinch of salt

For the syrup

350g water

600g sugar

3 thin strips of lemon peel

Preparation

Put the eggs, sugar and grated peel in a bowl and beat well with a hand whisk.

Add the yoghurt and beat well until it is well mixed.

Set aside 1 tbsp of semolina and put the rest in a bowl and add the almonds, vanilla, baking powder and salt. Mix well.

Add this mixture to the yoghurt mixture and mix well.

Take an oven dish 30cm diameter and 5cm deep, butter it and sprinkle the tbsp of semolina you have previously set aside.

Put the mixture in the dish and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

In the meantime prepare the syrup by boiling all the syrup ingredients for 5 minutes.

When the cake is ready, cut it into portions in the oven dish and pour the syrup over it.

Remember, the cake should be hot when you do this and the syrup warm.

 

You can find here more recipes likes this...

Authentic Greek Recipes

 

Traditional Greek New Year Cake - Vassilopita

First of all, I'd like to wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year! In Greece we traditionally have the Vassilopitta cake at New Year. A coin or special good luck charm called the floori is placed in it and whoever gets the slice with this in it supposedly has good luck all the year. Slices are not only cut for the people there, but also for the House, God, Christ and whoever else you wish. Obviously if God or Christ's slice has the coin or charm, it doesn't mean that they're going to have good luck (!) but that you will feel their influence all year.

There are a few different ways of making Vasilopitta, and this is just one of them - which we like!

Ingredients

900g self-raising white flour
9 eggs – yolks and whites separated
240g butter at room temperature
Juice from 7 medium oranges
750g sugar
Grated rind from one orange
120ml brandy
1 teaspoon baking powder
5 tablespoons ground almonds
2 vanilla essences
100g icing sugar

Preparation

Beat the sugar and butter in the mixer for 10 minutes.

Add the egg yolks one at a time and continue beating for another 10 minutes.

Add the juice, brandy and rind gradually and continue beating.

Spread the baking powder to the flour through a sieve.

Add the ground almonds and then add the flour mixture to the other mixture, stirring gently with a spatula.

Beat the egg whites into a meringue, add to the mixture and combine them gently with a spatula.

Grease a round baking dish – 34cm diameter, 5cm height – and sprinkle some flour in it.

Place the mixture in the dish and bake in a pre-heated moderate oven for 75 minutes – or until a skewer placed in the centre of the cake comes out cleanly.

Insert a coin or small good luck charm wrapped in tin foil anywhere in the underside of the cake and transfer to a seasonal cake plate.

Place a stencil with the year (2009) on top of the centre of the cake and sprinkle well with icing sugar through a sieve.

Remove the stencil so that the year is showing clearly (see photo).

You can find here more recipes likes this...

Authentic Greek Recipes

Greek Easter Cake - Tsoureki

This light cake is traditionally eaten at Easter and the red painted hard-boiled egg that it is placed in the centre is an indication of this. When making at any other time of the year however, it is optional whether or not you have the red egg for decoration.

The cake is nice and light inside, with the mastic creating a light stringiness when you break it into pieces (traditionally you break it with your hands and don't cut it with a knife).


Ingredients
1kg very good quality hard flour (Canadian Robin Hood is best)
80g fresh yeast
300g sugar
5 eggs (4 for the cake and 1 to spread on top)
150ml warm water
200g good quality butter
Grated rind from 1 orange
1 teaspoon mahlep
2 vanilla essences
¼ teaspoon grated mastic
Preparation
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and mix in ¼ of the flour.

Cover the mixture and let it rest.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan.

Set aside 2 tablespoons of the butter.

Melt the sugar in the remaining melted butter and transfer to a mixer and beat well.

Add the 4 eggs one at a time and continue beating for 4 minutes.

Place the remaining flour in a large bowl and add the orange rind, mastic, mahlep and 1 vanilla essence.

Add the egg, sugar and butter mixture that you have beaten in the mixture.

Add the yeast and flour mixture.

Knead well, using the remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter to wet your hands while kneading.

You should knead the mixture using the method of folding and spreading.
Cover the dough and let it rest in a warm place until it has doubled in size.

Divide the dough in 2 and “knit” the 2 lengths into “plaits” and join the ends to make a circular shape.

Again, let it rest in a warm place until it has doubled in size.

Beat the remaining egg with the other vanilla essence and 2 tablespoons of water.

Spread this lightly across the dough with a soft brush.
Bake in a preheated moderate oven (180 degrees) for 45 minutes or until it has turned a golden colour.

You can find here more recipes likes this...

Authentic Greek Recipes

Greek Fanouropita Cake for Agios (Saint) Fanourios Day

Yesterday, August 27th, was the name day of Saint Fanourios, the patron saint of things lost. His name is invoked when prayers are asked for the recovery of things lost items. The recipe below is for Fanouropita, a cake traditionally eaten on his name day.


Ingredients

750g self-raising flour
600 ml orange juice
150 ml must (juice from fresh grapes)
300 ml olive oil
500g sugar
200g grated walnuts
50g sesame seeds
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon grated cloves
Pinch of salt
Icing sugar to sprinkle on top

Preparation

Put the orange juice, olive oil and sugar in a bowl and stir well.

Dissolve the baking soda in the must and add to the mixture.

Separately, mix together the flour, walnuts, sesame seeds, cinnamon, cloves and salt.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture and fold it in.

Grease an oven dish 30cm diameter and 6cm deep and put the mixture in it.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 50 minutes.

After you remove the cake, lightly sprinkle icing sugar on top.

You can find here more recipes likes this...

Authentic Greek Recipes