Sweet orange custard cake sprinkled with fall fairy dust (ahem, cinnamon.) # 362: Portokalopita

It felt auspicious that my sister sent me a recipe for a “broken phyllo” cake when I was debating what to do with all the extra crumbled phyllo dough in the freezer (left over from the cherry almond croissant loaf.) Meant to be!

I looked up the name translation to English and had a My Big Fat Greek Wedding moment. Read in my best Gus voice: portokalopita comes from the Greek word portokáli which means orange and the Greek word pita which can mean cake. Orange cake. There you go!

The texture reminded me a lot of ruffled custard pie, like if a baklava and French toast had a baby.

So. Much. Oil. I chose olive oil and the flavor definitely carried through in the custard. So if you don’t love the taste, consider yourself warned.

Counterintuitively, you actually want the phyllo dough to dry out! Like a giant pile of crunchy leaves.

It was at this point that it hit me: the phyllo dough is the only flour in the cake. Think more custard-with-structure.

Looks a bit like chicken soup, not gonna lie.

What would a Greek dessert be without a syrup? Bring on the orange and cinnamon.

Lil orange zest sparkles.

Oooo, aaaaah.

Happy munching!

Recipe from: https://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/extra-syrupy-greek-yogurt-cake-oranges-portokalopita/