Virginia's Greek Tyropita

HeatherFeather's Note:

The most delicious version I have ever eaten - this even beat the version I ate while in Greece. I attended a Greek festival at St Barbara Greek Orthodox Church in Orange CT, and the lady who prepared this dish was kind enough to share the recipe on the spot. She has made it so many times, she knows it by memory. She said that salt is not needed as the feta is already salty enough. NOTE: It is very important to use the correct size pan as specified in the instructions. Using a 9x13 pan will not produce the correct result.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 24

• 32 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
• 32 ounces cottage cheese, drained
• 1 cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 8 large eggs, lightly beaten
• ground black pepper, to taste
• 16 ounces prepared raw phyllo pastry (#4 thickness)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted (or as needed)
• water, as needed to spritz pan

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Combine cheeses, eggs,and season to taste with about 1 tsp of pepper, mixing well to combine.
3. Lightly butter a large jelly roll pan or rectangular pan with low sides (about 11" x 14") and place a sheet or two of phyllo pastry to cover the pan.
4. Brush lightly again with butter, then repeat until you have 10 layers (go easy on the butter).
5. Spread filling evenly in pan.
6. Top with another 10 layers of phyllo, tucking in and folding the corners, buttering each layer as before.
7. Using a clean spray bottle filled with some cold water, gently mist the entire surface (this will produce a crispy top layer).
8. Cut into 24 squares, then pop into the preheated oven and bake about 1 hour.

Reviews

[RecipeJunkie8]

I have Greek friends who serve tyropita triangles at parties all the time but they get them from an older lady who makes them out of her house. I swear this recipe is a closely guarded! I was happy to come across this one because it sounds like the real deal. The filling is tasty but the phyllo was not light and crunchy-it was kind of soggy. Next time, I would halve the recipe because the filling is really thick. Or, I would make the more traditional, albeit time-consuming, phyllo triangles so that you get more crunch per bite. I did pre-cut these which was easier than I thought however the end result was that the phyllo separated and the cheese kind of oozed out. I might consider upping to temp to 325 next time.

[spiritussancto]

zomg this makes so much! i quartered the recipe and made little phyllo wrapped triangles. made about 20 even with 1/4 the filling described here. very tasty! discovered something odd tho: when made with puff pastry instead of phyllo it changes the filling flavor a lot! much milder and less salty, more creamy. worth trying anyway

[Oldrecipe]

Easy and very good. ALL 20 people I served it to loved it. Don't know that I would cut the squares before baking.......the fillo separated and the top does not brown at all at 300.