Australian pastry chef Anna Polyviou is well known for her interesting and intricate Rockstar desserts. She’s appeared on TVs MasterChef and has written a new book called Sweet Street. This gorgeous Greek recipe taken from foodservice comes from Anna’s Greek heritage and I have to admit is one of my favourite desserts.
The recipes serves 20 people so it’s perfect for any occasion, or if you’re like me, give some to your neighbours and keep the rest for yourself and enjoy a few slices during the week.
It takes about an hour to put everything together and an hour in the oven but trust me the effort is worth it!
The Galaktoboureko Recipe – serves 20
Ingredients
- 600 ml milk
- 2 tbsp vanilla sugar
- 2 eggs
- 70 g caster sugar
- 125 g fine semolina
- 25 g unsalted butter
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 375 g packet frozen filo pastry (about 20 sheets)
- 400 g unsalted butter, melted
SYRUP
- 1 kg caster sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 10 whole cloves
- juice of 1 lemon
Method
- Combine all of the syrup ingredients in a medium saucepan with 750 ml of cold water and bring to the boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
- Refrigerate the syrup until completely cool. The syrup is best made the day before so that it is really cold when you pour it onto the hot galaktoboureko.
- Put the milk into a medium saucepan with the vanilla sugar and bring to the boil.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and caster sugar until pale in colour and well combined. Add the semolina to the egg mixture and continue whisking until well combined.
- When the milk has come to the boil, add the semolina mixture. Whisk for a further 5 minutes over medium heat until the mixture has thickened.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and lemon zest. Set aside at room temperature until needed.
- Preheat the oven to 165°C. Lay the filo sheets on a clean work surface, cover with a clean tea towel that has been slightly dampened with cold water. This is so the thin sheets of filo don’t dry out.
- Lightly brush a deep-sided 20 x 30 x 4 cm baking tray with melted butter.
- Lay 1 sheet of filo in the base of the baking tray and brush with a little bit of melted butter. Top with another filo sheet and lightly brush with melted butter. Repeat with another 8 filo sheets and melted butter. Make sure that the filo sheets overhang the sides of the dish so it holds in the semolina custard.
- Pour the semolina custard into the baking dish. Repeat the layering with the remaining filo sheets and the remaining melted butter.
- Use a small sharp knife to score the top of the galaktoboureko into 20 rectangles. Brush with the remaining melted butter and sprinkle a little water over the top. Bake for 60 minutes or until golden.
- While the dish is still hot, pour the cold syrup over it.
Anna’s Mum’s twist Make sure to cut the filo layers to shape before baking, without cutting right to the bottom: if it hasn’t been done before baking you won’t be able to do it after. When cooking the semolina custard, make sure you keep whisking so that it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the saucepan.
Image credit: foodsevicenews.com.au
For more delicious dessert recipes get Anna’s book Sweet Street from all leading bookstores including Dymocks, Angus & Robertson and The Book Depository plus many more retailers available through Cashrewards.
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