Lemon Filo Cake

100 ingenious recipes that make exciting Greek and Cypriot dishes simple, from social media sensation Marina Georgallides

In Eat Like A Greek, Marina Georgallides shares 100 easy-to-follow Greek and Cypriot recipes from her childhood, using fresh ingredients and surprisingly simple cooking methods.

Contents include:
– Dips & appetizers (including Tirokafteri, a spicy feta dip made with hot peppers)
– Breads (including Greek Flatbread, soft, fluffy and foldable breads)
– Meat & fish (including Biftekia, the Greek version of a burger patty)
– Vegetarian & vegan (including Dolmades Cake, an adaptation of the classic Greek mezze dish of stuffed vine)
– Desserts & pastries (including Easy Tiropita, a classic savory Greek pastry stuffed with cheese and egg)

Rooted in tradition but designed to be adapted, Marina’s recipes make the flavorful dishes that she grew up with accessible to all cooks. From a Portokalopita recipe that doesn’t require you to oven dry the filo pastry to a flatbread recipe that only needs one hour proving time, no dish is out of reach.

Eat Like a Greek: 100 Quick, Easy, Delicious Recipes by Marina Georgallides is available at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Indigo.ca.   

---

Lemon Filo Cake

lemonópita

Bursting with vibrant flavour from the juice and zest, lemonópita is a lemon version of its more famous orange counterpart, portokalópita (see variation on page 196). As with most Greek cakes, lemonópita is drenched in a simple cinnamon-infused syrup, so it’s incredibly moist and tender. Unlike other recipes, I prepare this without drying out the filo pastry -I go straight in with shredding it up, which I find gives the cake an even more gooey, melt-in-your-mouth texture – and it makes the preparation a lot simpler. I’ve given the recipe here a little fruity twist by swirling mashed raspberries into the batter. The pop of pink looks beautiful, and the tartness of the raspberries balances the sweetness of this divine

SERVES 16

200g (7oz) caster sugar

200ml (fl oz) vegetable oil

2 large eggs

zest of 2 lemons and juice of 3

150g (5½oz) Greek yogurt (0% fat)

300g (10½oz) filo pastry (about 10-12 sheets)

1 heaped teaspoon baking powder

I teaspoon vanilla extract 225g (8oz) raspberries, mashed

For the syrup 275g (9¾oz) caster sugar

175ml (6fl oz) water

1 cinnamon stick

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C fan (375°F), Gas Mark 5 and lightly oil a 23cm (9 inch) square baking dish.
2. First, prepare the syrup. Put the ingredients in a saucepan and place over a high heat. Stir continuously and allow to come to the boil. Once it starts to bubble, take off the heat, remove the cinnamon stick and set aside to cool completely.
3. Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar, oil and eggs in a large bowl until combined. Add the lemon zest, juice and yogurt, and whisk again.
4. Shred the filo pastry into a separate bowl by tearing it with your hands, leaving you with small shavings. Add this to the batter, along with the baking powder and vanilla extract, and stir to combine.
5. Put the raspberries in the bowl you used to shred the pastry. Using the back of a fork, roughly mash the berries to a paste-like consistency.
6. Pour the mixture into the baking dish and drop dollops of the mashed raspberries over the surface. I then swirl the berries through the mixture with a wooden skewer. Bake for 45 minutes until the cake is firm and golden brown on top.
7. Once the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and carefully pour over the syrup. I use a ladle, pouring over the syrup in several goes, and wait for it to be absorbed before pouring over the next.
8. Leave the cake to cool for at least an hour until it reaches room temperature then place in the fridge to chill for another 3-4 hours: it’s key to let the cake chill in the dish before slicing, so that it slices properly.

Recipe published with permission from Hamlyn.