Little Cheese Pies Tiropitakia Recipes

LITTLE CHEESE PIES (TIROPITAKIA)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 170-180C.
• Prepare 2 clean towels and lightly dampen them with a sprinkling of water.
• Spread the phyllo sheets on 1 damp towel and cover with the second towel to prevent them drying out.
• Line a baking tray with baking paper.
• Crumble the feta cheese and place in a bowl with the mozzarella, beaten egg, mint, and pepper. Mix well.
• Carefully place a sheet of phyllo pastry on a smooth surface, with the narrow end facing towards you.
• Brush with oil and fold over on the long side.
• Cut along the fold to form 2 long pieces of pastry.
• Place a teaspoonful of the mixture on the bottom righthand corner of the pastry and fold over in the shape of a triangle.
• Continue folding in triangular shapes until the end of the sheet.
• Place on the baking tray and brush with oil.
• Repeat this action with the remaining sheets. (The pastry should remain inside the damp towels until ready to use.)
• Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 10 minutes or until golden and crispy.

TIROPITAKIA (LITTLE CHEESE PIES)

Steps:

• Crumble or mash the feta cheese with a fork.
• Add the grated cheese, parsley, eggs and pepper.
• Cut pastry sheets in strips about 2x12 inches.
• Stack them one on top of the other to prevent From drying.
• Brush a strip of phyllo with melted butter, lay another strip on top and brush that one with butter too.
• Put one teaspoon of the filling on the short end of the strip, facing you, and fold over one corner to make a triangle.
• Continue folding pastry strip from side to side in the shape of a triangle until the entire pastry strip covers the filling. (Remember how we were taught to fold a flag into a triangular shape? Think of that as you keep folding the dough over. You should have a nice, neat, triangular packet.)
• Proceed in this manner with remaining pastry strips and filling until all are used.
• Put"tiropitakia" on a buttered baking sheet, brush generously with melted butter and bake in a moderate oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
• Serve hot.
• You can also make these ahead, put on a baking sheet and freeze, unbaked. When frozen, just keep them in a ziploc bag and you can have tiropitakia at a moment's notice. Just add 5 more minutes to the baking time if you're using frozen ones.

TYROPITAKIA-CHEESE PIES

Steps:

• To make the filling, combine the all the cheese together with the parsley, nutmeg, pepper, and eggs. Mix well and set aside for 1 hour, refrigerated. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pull phyllo dough from the refrigerator and unroll. Make sure to keep the dough covered at all times while using, because it dries out quickly. Cut the phyllo into 4 strips. (If you want to make smaller tyropitakia, cut into 6 strips.) One strip at a time, brush with the melted butter and place a small dollop of cheese mix in the middle of the top of the strip. Folding the phyllo is like folding a flag, fold the right corner to the left to form a right angle and then upward. Continue folding at right angles until you reach the top and have a triangle. Place the triangles on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on each side.

TIROPITAKIA (MINIATURE GREEK CHEESE PIES)

Steps:

• Remove the filo pastry from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature about 1 hour.
• Make the filling by mashing the feta until it crumbles.
• Add to this the eggs, Emmenthal cheese, ricotta, parsley, mint and pepper and blend well.
• Cut each filo leaf into a strip 6 x 12" (15 x 30 cm).
• Brush each leaf with the melted butter.
• Fold the leaves in half lengthwise making strips 3 x l1" (6 x 30 cm).
• Again brush with butter and place 1 Tbsp.
• of the filling at the bottom of each leaf.
• Fold over to form a triangle (like you were folding a flag) and continue folding until the strip is completed.
• Repeat with each of the strips and place the completed triangles on a well greased cookie sheet.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Brush the tops of each triangle with butter and then with a mixture of the egg yolk and 2 Tbsp of water.
• Sprinkle over with the sesame seeds and bake in a medium oven until the pastries are golden brown and flaky (about 20- 30 minutes).
• Serve hot or cool.
• Yields 16- 24 pastries.