Portokalopita
Adapted from a Dear Reader recipe
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time:
- 375g/13ozs. filo pastry
- 300ml/10.6flozs orange or blood orange juice
- Zest of 2 oranges or blood oranges
- 200g/7ozs. Greek yogurt
- 180ml/6flozs. oil (I used a blood orange olive oil)
- 100g/3.5ozs. caster or superfine sugar
- 5 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
For syrup
- 350ml/12.4ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 350ml/12.4flozs water
- Zest and juice of 1 orange or blood orange
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 sliced blood orange to decorate
- 2 tablespoons Cointreau
Step 1 - First make the syrup as you want this to be cold when you use it. Place the sugar, water, zest, juice and cinnamon in a small saucepan and bring to a boil and simmer with the lid off for 10 minutes. Add in Cointreau.
Step 2 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F and have three or four trays ready (no need to line them). Bake the filo sheets one at a time. They'll take 8-9 minutes to become light golden. You want to crush them up once they're baked but try not to get tiny smithereens. You can do this step a day or two ahead of time and keep them in airtight containers.
Step 3 - Line a 30x20cm rectangular baking tray with 1 inch sides. In a bowl whisk the juice, zest, yogurt, oil, sugar, eggs, baking powder and vanilla together and then add in the crushed filo and mix until filo is soaked. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes.
Step 4 - Poke holes with a thin skewer in the hot cake and pour cold syrup over the hot cake. Decorate with blood orange segments.