Portokalopita

Portokalopita is a Greek baked dessert that makes the most of the aroma of orange. Thin phyllo dough is torn into small pieces and mixed into a liquid batter, and after baking, the cake is soaked with orange syrup. Although it looks much like a cake, the layers of thin pastry remain in the mouth.

Mixing dried pastry into the batter

In a recipe from the Greek pastry manufacturer Kanaki, the phyllo is torn and dried, then added little by little to a mixture of eggs, yogurt, oil, sugar, orange zest and other ingredients. The liquid is worked through the whole mixture so that the phyllo does not clump together, and the batter is poured into a pan and baked. A syrup flavored with orange and cinnamon is made separately and poured over the baked cake.

If the torn pastry is added all at once, the overlapping pieces tend to form lumps. Mixing it in a little at a time lets the liquid get between the pieces, which also helps the cake absorb the syrup after baking. The orange zest adds aroma, and the juice adds fruit flavor to the syrup. Depending on the recipe, marmalade is sometimes added.

Finishing with orange and syrup

On Chios, an island in the North Aegean, there is a method suited to the season when oranges are available. Thinly sliced oranges are arranged on top before baking, and cooled syrup is poured over the hot cake, which is then left until the syrup soaks in.

The pastry manufacturer’s example, in which the phyllo is broken up before mixing, and the Chios example, in which the liquid and phyllo are combined in the baking tray, differ somewhat in both the mixing method and the finish.

In a method presented by a hotel restaurant in Athens, the phyllo is dried overnight before use, and warm syrup is poured over the cake once it is baked. Other versions pour cold syrup over the hot cake, so there is more than one way to combine the temperatures of the syrup and the cake.

Greece has many desserts soaked in syrup, and baklava is one of them. In portokalopita, the same thin pastry is not layered in sheets but torn and mixed in.

Glossary