Galatopita - Milkpie

The four basic ingredients in pastry are sugar, eggs, flour, and milk. There are endless variations and proportions in which these four ingredients can be mixed to become different desserts. Nowadays there is a great variety of special pastry ingredients but in the old days people had to use their creativity, four basic ingredients, and maybe some spices and natural flavorings to make different desserts. Such a simple dessert in Greek cuisine is Galatopita (milk pie), a sweet baked cream with ingredients found in every house

My grandmother had goats in our cottage house and galatopita with goats milk was often on the menu.

The ideal combination to flavor a Galatopita is vanilla in the cream and some cinnamon to dust the pie just before baking. There are several variations to make this pie, like using semolina flour instead of all purpose flour, pie crust or fyllo as a base or simply flavoring it with lemon zest instead of vanilla.

Galatopita

Serves 4-5

500gr milk

100gr flour

80gr sugar

2 eggs

¼ tsp salt

vanilla flavoring to taste

cinnamon to dust the pie  

Combine in a saucepan sugar and half of the milk and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, in a bowl beat together the eggs, vanilla, salt, remaining milk (250gr) and flour until it becomes smooth. Gradually pour half of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking to combine. Scrape the egg mixture back into the pan with the remaining hot milk and cook over low heat, whisking constantly until it is thickened. Then pour the thickened mixture into a 20cm round greased pie pan and dust with cinnamon. Preheat the oven to 180˚ C and bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown.