Kalitsounia
Photo: Benoît Prieur · CC0

History

Kalitsounia are the everyday pie of Crete, and the shape changes as you cross the island. Around Heraklion they are usually small and open-topped, the pastry pinched into a star and the myzithra left exposed so it browns in the oven. In the west they are more often closed and fried. The pies belong to the calendar as much as to the kitchen: sweet cheese versions appear at Easter, greens versions through Lent and winter, when horta are at their best. Bakeries across Heraklion sell them all year now, and the Agora on 1866 Street is where most households still buy the myzithra to make them at home.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy

Make it at home

Yield Makes about 16Hands-on 40 minTotal 1 hr 10 minDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 350g plain flour
  • 60ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 120ml warm water
  • 1 tablespoon raki or white wine vinegar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 400g fresh myzithra or ricotta
  • 1 egg
  • Zest of half a lemon
  • Thyme honey and cinnamon, to serve

Method

  1. Work the flour, olive oil, raki, salt and enough warm water together to make a soft dough. Knead for five minutes, then rest it covered for thirty.
  2. Beat the myzithra with the egg and lemon zest until smooth but still thick enough to hold its shape on a spoon.
  3. Roll the dough out thin, about 2mm, and cut discs roughly 9cm across.
  4. Put a heaped teaspoon of cheese in the centre of each disc and pinch the edges up at four or five points, leaving the middle open.
  5. Bake at 180C for 20 to 25 minutes until the pastry is pale gold and the cheese has caught colour.
  6. Serve warm, and pour thyme honey and a dusting of cinnamon over the sweet ones.

Tip from the editors. Fresh myzithra is wet. If yours weeps, drain it in a sieve for an hour or the pastry base will go soggy.

Where to eat kalitsounia

Kalitsounia in Heraklion

Savoidakis ★ 4.3

€ BakeryOld Town

Savoidakis sells kalitsounia right across Heraklion, and a warm bag of the Cretan cheese pies is the best two euros you can spend near the Agora.

OrderKalitsounia, eaten warm out of the paper bag

TipThe Dikaiosinis branch is the handiest for the Agora, and the pies come out through the morning.

Directions

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