Galatopita is a dense, creamy custard pie made of milk, semolina, eggs, and a little bit of butter. This old-fashioned and utterly delicious Greek pie is served topped with honey and cinnamon for a real sweet and filling treat!
What Does Galatopita Taste Like?
Think of really thick milk and egg custard cream. With a denser texture, a bit grainy because of the semolina, and with a wheaty flavor. As semolina is the ground wheat middlings of durum wheat (a real tasty wheat variety used in making pasta as well). Therefore semolina is much tastier than plain flour or cornstarch which are commonly used to make a custard.
Which Type Of Semolina To Use
For this recipe, we use fine (thin) semolina. There is also coarse semolina but that's mostly used in other types of recipes such as Halva.
How Do You Make Galatopita?
Galatopita first gets cooked on the stovetop and then baked in the oven. You basically make a semolina custard first, which then gets baked and turns into a thick cream pie. And here are the few simple steps you need to follow in order to make it...
- Beat eggs in a bowl until frothy, foamy, and a little bit thickened.
- Heat milk in a cooking pot along with sugar, vanillins (or vanilla extract), lemon peel, and butter.
- Once milk is steamy hot, add the semolina in slowly while constantly stirring the cream with a whisk.
- At this point, the cream will bubble. And will take about 2-3 minutes to thicken. You may then take the pot off the heat, remove the lemon peel and incorporate the beaten eggs into the cream
- Transfer the cream to a round 10-inch pan greased with butter and bake for about an hour.
- Once the top of the pie turns into a deep golden color with brown highlights, and appears to have set, prick with a toothpick in the center to ensure it has cooked properly (toothpick comes out clean).
- Remove pie from oven and let set for 30 minutes before cutting.
Is Galatopita Eaten Hot Or Cold?
You can enjoy it both ways. If you want to serve it warm just give it a few minutes to set inside the pan (about 30). Then cut to about 10 pieces or 12 smaller ones. If you want to serve it cold let it reach room temperature then refrigerate for at least 6 hours. It will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.
SERVE WITH 🠯
Galatopita is mostly served either with honey and cinnamon, or icing sugar and cinnamon. While some people just sprinkle regular sugar and cinnamon giving it a more rustic look. I prefer the honey but that depends on each person's liking. The sugar goes also well and suits it best when the pie is served warm. If Galatopita is served cold then the moisture of the pie will dampen the sugar, so it's better to serve with honey when you serve it cold.
Galatopita - Baked Semolina Milk Pie
Ingredients
- 1400 ml fresh milk
- 270 grams (1 + ⅓ cup) sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 lemon peel
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 200 grams fine semolina
- 4 medium-sized eggs
- honey + ground cinnamon to serve with or icing sugar and cinnamon instead
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160°C / 320°F.
- Grease a round 10-inch springform cake pan with butter and set it aside.
- Add all of the ingredients except the semolina and eggs to a medium-sized cooking pot and heat over medium heat.
- In a small mixing bowl beat the eggs until frothy, foamy, and slightly thickened. Set aside.
- Once the milk in the pot gets steamy hot start to add the semolina in slowly. While at the same time stirring the contents of the pot with a whisk.
- Once you have added all of the semolina turn the heat to low. At this point, the cream is going to bubble a lot. Semolina creates explosive bubbles when it cooks so be careful and if necessary pull the pot off the heat for a minute for the temperature to drop.
- Cook stirring constantly until the cream starts to thicken. Then remove the pot from the heat and carefully remove the lemon peel.
- Swiftly whisk in the beaten eggs. And once fully incorporated into the cream, transfer the cream to the pan.
- Bake for about 1 hour. Until the top of the pie turns into a golden color all over on top with brown highlights here and there. Prick the center of the pie with a toothpick to see if it's done. If the toothpick comes out clean you can remove the pie from the oven.
- Let the pie sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes in order to set before cutting and serving. Or if you prefer eating the pie cold, then let it reach room temperature and then refrigerate for 6 hours. Cut pie into 10 pieces and serve each piece with plenty of honey and ground cinnamon on top or icing sugar and cinnamon if you prefer!
Nutrition
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