Maria’s Tiropita

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Every Greek yiayia has her own version of making pita. Some make thick and rustic, others swirl into snail-like formations, others are layered. All has a special pride in their pita making technique.

The filling vary also based on what they make, they most famous being the spanakopita (spinach) and the most popular being the tiropita (cheese).

I have enjoyed my mother-in-law’s (Maria) pita for a good part of 30 years. Her pita is so thin and fine you would think that it was brought. I really like it and as it has a quiche like taste and texture it is a meal on its own.

The fun part with my mother-in-law, along with most Greek mothers/grandmothers is getting them to give you a recipe with measurements. It’s all done with the eye/palm/greek coffee cup or something like that. Finally I convinced her and here are the results.

Recipe

Yiayia Maria’s Tiropita

Dough

• 200g plain flour

• 1/2ts salt

• 1/2tbs white vinegar

• 1tbs olive oil

• 1/2 cup of warm water

• extra flour for rolling the dough

Filling

• 5 eggs

• 500g feta

• 1 cup full cream milk

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• cracked pepper

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°

2. Sift flour in a big bowl

3. Make a well and add salt, vinegar, olive oil and add water slowly mixing it

4. Combine all the ingredients and form a neat ball

5. Knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is nice and soft

6. Divide dough into 6 individual balls and let them rest for about an hour (Yiayia Maria says the longer the rest the better the dough)

7. In a bowl, beat the eggs, crumb the feta, add the milk and pepper set aside

8. Using a very thin rolling pin, roll out the dough balls individually into very thin circular sheets, approximately the size of your tray. We used a 42cm round tray. One of the sheets to be used as the base, to be rolled out slightly longer to overhang the tray.

9. Oil the tray with the half the olive oil and add 2 of the filo sheets slightly overhanging

10. Add 1/4 of the mixture and then add a filo sheet, repeat until the last filo is on the top. Fold in the overhanging pastry neatly and spread remaining olive oil, especially around the edges to make them nice and crunchy.

11. Cook in the oven for 1 hour, allow to cool and enjoy!

Hint: Yiayia Maria leaves a little of the milky/cheesy mixture and adds it on the top filo sheet so when it cooks in the oven you get a few small crispy feta pieces