Tzevremedakia
Tzevremedakia is a very typical Greek dessert consisting of baked phyllo pastry with a filling based on Myzithra cheese originated in Crete. If you have difficulties finding this cheese in your local store, you can substitute it with mascarpone, ricotta or a mixture of both.
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½ kg (1 lbs 2 oz) fresh myzithra
1 egg
½ tsp cinnamon (optional)
½ kg (1 lb 2 oz) phyllo dough
Syrup:
4 cups sugar
4 cups water
1 orange cut into slices
Preparation time: 1 hr
Difficulty level: Easy-Medium
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Ingredients
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
Start with the syrup, since this must cool down completely by the time tzevremedakia is ready.
Put the water, sugar and orange slices into a pan and boil them until quite thin syrup is formed. Remove the syrup from the heat and leave to cool completely.
Make the filling by mashing the Myzithra and mixing it with the egg and cinnamon (optional).
Prepare pieces of phyllo dough measuring about 20 x 20 cm (8"x 8").
For each tzevremedaki, take two pieces of phyllo, oil them and place them on top of each other.
Put a spoonful of the filling and wrap with the dough to form a cylinder.
Place the rolls in a lightly oiled dish, not too close together, and brush their surfaces with oil.
Put the dish in the oven and lower the heat to 160°C (320°F).
After half and hour, raise the heat again to 180°C (350°F), in order to brown the pastry. As soon as the tzevremedakia are ready, remove them from the oven and pour over the cold syrup.