Greek-Style Creamy Custard Phyllo Pie

Recipe From What's For Lunch, Honey?

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

• 10 sheets phyllo pastry

• 60g butter, melted

• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

• zest of 1 orange

• 1 stick cinnamon

• 4 cardamom pods, slightly crushed

• 1 vanilla bean, split in the centre with the seeds scraped out

• 350 ml milk

• 3 eggs

• 95g sugar

• 2 tablespoons honey

• 150g pistachios, coarsely chopped

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 20 cm cake pan with baking paper.

2. Spread out the sheets of phyllo pastry and cover them with a damp cloth to keep them from drying. Take on of the sheets and spread smoothly on the countertop, then brush generously with butter. Coil the sides of the pastry together in a rosette. Place the rosette in the middle of the cake pan and continue with the remaining phyllo pastry in the same way, placing them around the one in the center.

3. Generously brush the tops of each pastry rosette with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and cardamom. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

4. In the meantime make the custard by placing the milk, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and the vanilla bean and seeds in a saucepan and bringing it to a simmer over medium heat.

5. Place the eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk until thick. Gradually pour the warm milk over the custard mixture, whisking to well to temper the mixture to make sure the eggs do not curdle.

6. Remove the cake pan from the oven and pour the custard over the top of the pastry and sprinkle with the orange zest. Place the pan back in the oven and bake for another 30 minutes until the custard has set.

7. Take the cake pan out of the oven and drizzle the pastry with honey while still hot and sprinkle with pistachios.

8. This tastes great while still warm and fresh on the same day. After that the phyllo pastry ends to get a bit soggy and the custard loses it’s creamy texture. Serve with a thick vanilla sauce.

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