Galatopita is a dense, creamy custard pie made of milk, semolina, eggs, sugar, and a little bit of butter. This old-fashioned and utterly delicious Greek pie is served topped with honey and cinnamon for a real sweet and filling treat!
What Does It Taste Like?
Think of really thick milk and egg custard cream. With a denser texture, is a bit grainy because of the semolina, and with a wheaty flavor. As semolina is the ground wheat middlings of durum wheat (a really tasty wheat variety used in making pasta as well). Therefore, semolina is much tastier than plain flour or cornstarch. Which are commonly used to make a custard.
Which Type Of Semolina To Use
For this recipe, we use fine (thin) semolina. There is also coarse semolina but that's mostly used in other types of recipes such as Halva.
How To Make Galatopita
Galatopita first gets cooked on the stovetop and then baked in the oven. You basically make a semolina custard first, which then gets baked and turns into a thick cream pie. And here are the few simple steps you need to follow in order to make it...
- Beat eggs together with half the sugar in a bowl until slightly foamy.
- Heat milk in a cooking pot along with the remaining sugar, vanilla sugar, orange zest, and cinnamon.
- Once the milk is steamy hot remove it from the heat and add half of it to the eggs while stirring constantly with a whisk.
- Then transfer the egg and milk mixture back to the pot.
- Over medium heat add the semolina in slowly.
- Cook until the cream thickens and bubbles.
- Transfer to a butter-greased 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes.
- Then let the Galatopita set for at least 45 minutes before cutting and serving.
Eaten Hot Or Cold
You can enjoy it both ways. While it's warm it's very soft fluffy and creamy. On the other hand, when it's cooled it gets firmer and thicker because of the semolina.
If you want to serve it warm just give it a few minutes to set inside the pan (about 45). Then cut it into about 10 pieces or 12 smaller ones. If you want to serve it cold let it reach room temperature then refrigerate for at least 6 hours. It will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.
SERVE WITH 🠯
Galatopita is mostly served either with honey and cinnamon, or icing sugar and cinnamon. While some people just sprinkle regular sugar and cinnamon giving it a more rustic look. I prefer honey but that depends on each person's liking. The sugar goes also well especially when cooled. If Galatopita is served warm, the honey kind of melts and gets all nice and sticky on the pie.
Recipe
Galatopita - Baked Semolina Milk Pie
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1250 ml (5 cups) whole milk
- 170 grams (¾ cup + 2 tbsp) sugar
- ⅔ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ orange zested
- 1 (9 grams packet) vanilla sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 150 grams (⅔ cup + 1 tbsp) fine semolina
- 50 grams (3 ½ tbsp) butter
- 15 grams (1 tbsp) butter melted
To Serve With:
- honey, or icing sugar
- ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175°C / 350°F.
- Grease a round 9-inch (23 cm) springform cake tin with butter and set it aside.
- In a bowl whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and half of the sugar until slightly foamy. Set aside.
- Add the milk, the remaining amount of sugar, orange zest, vanilla, and cinnamon to a cooking pot. Heat the milk over medium heat until steamy hot. NOTE: Use a cooking pot that's at least 4 quarts ( 4 liters) so you won't burn when the semolina starts to bubble later on.
- Remove from the heat and using a ladle start to add spoonfuls of the hot milk into the eggs while constantly whisking the eggs with a whisk.
- Once you have added half of the milk to the eggs, transfer everything back to the pot.
- Place the pot back on the heat (medium heat) and gradually add in the semolina while constantly stirring with the whisk.
- The cream will start to thicken. Keep stirring until it starts to bubble. Cook for 1 minute from the time it starts to make explosive bubbles. At this point, you have to stir constantly and vigorously so the cream won't come out of the pot.
- Remove from the heat and mix in the butter.
- Transfer the cream to the butter-greased tin and smoothen its surface with a spoon. And brush the melted butter on top.
- Bake for about 50 minutes or until deep golden and the surface starts to brown. It's going to be jiggly when you take it out of the oven but will set as it cools.
- Let the Galatopita sit for at least 45 minutes before cutting and serving. It's going to be very creamy and soft while it's still warm. And become like thick custard pie when cooled.
- When about to serve, remove the cake ring and cut the pie into 10 pieces. You can serve each piece either with honey and cinnamon, or icing sugar and cinnamon.
- You can keep this pie in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Video
Nutrition
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