Cretan Kalitsounia (Sweet Cheese Pastries)
photo by twissis
- Ready In:
- 38mins
- Ingredients:
- 11
- Yields:
-
20 pastries (approximately)
ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3⁄4 cup water
- 1 lb manouri cheese (ricotta will do in a pinch) or 1 lb fresh mizithra cheese (ricotta will do in a pinch)
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons lemon zest, finely grated
- 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- olive oil (for frying) or clarified butter (for frying)
-
Garnish
- greek thyme honey or cinnamon sugar
directions
- Prepare a stiff dough with the flour, olive oil, salt and water.
- Leave to rest, covered, for an hour.
- Crumble cheese.
- Mix well with egg, zest, cinnamon and sugar.
- Separate dough in two.
- Take half of dough and roll out 1/8 inch thick on a lightly-floured surface.
- Using a water glass, cut into small rounds 3 inches in diameter.
- Place 1 tablespoon of the cheese mixture on each round of dough, moisten edges with a little water, fold over and seal well, pressing the edges together with a fork.
- Repeat with remaining dough and cheese filling.
- Heat enough olive oil or clarified butter to come up about 3/4 inch of pan.
- Fry pastries until golden brown.
- Drizzle with honey or sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar and serve hot.
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Reviews
-
My DH hovered over me as I took these out of the pan last nite & devoured a whole plate of them. I even made a few of them stuffed w/ground meat just to see if it would work as well - it did btw. I "hid" the rest so I'd have enough for a pic, but he was around asking for more when he saw me taking the pic. The prep took me longer than I expected, but even DH said they were worth the wait. You are so right in your intro - very addictive & delicious! Thx.
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OK, here goes. I live in Athens, Greece. I moved out here many, many years ago from Ottawa, Canada - so I am blessed in having two wonderful heritages!
I suffer from compulsive obsessive behaviour with regard to food and my psychiatrist thought it would be a good idea to find a 'society' where many have the same problem and try to find a cure.
So far, I've copied a couple of thousand recipes from this site and my psychiatrist has thrown the towel in and refuses to answer the phone when I call.
What did I do wrong?
Got 3 kids that keep me on the go - 10 and under at this point (2008) - I may not get round to updating this for a few years, so you'll have to do your own maths.
I teach English full-time and Greek Cookery part-time. I would like to make the cooking part of it full-time and the English Grammar part of it part-time.
That's all for now.