What’s Cooking in Kelli’s Kitchen

Our venerable leader recently opined in her Captain’s Log about the challenge of the blank page. While I will not go as far as to invoke the term “writer’s block,” I often struggle with penning the first sentence of a column. I faced this barrier on Friday, so I asked my officemates to suggest a prompt for my column. Lucy and the Chamber of Commerce came to my rescue. She told me that she met with The Fallon Post team this week to discuss resurrecting Fallon’s historic Holiday Pie Contest. All it took was a mention of desserts, and suddenly, I was gabbing about a tasty recipe that I whipped up in Kelli’s Kitchen last weekend – Broken Phyllo Cake.

I recently saw a video by Christopher Kimball from Milk Street in which he prepares “The Best Recipe You Have Never Heard Of,” I was intrigued. Broken Phyllo Cake involves a simple preparation of an ingredient that is usually super high maintenance. While I love crispy layers of phyllo dough in baklava, dealing with the inevitable crumble is infuriating. Fortunately, there is no layering involved in this fantastic recipe.

Portokalopita is a traditional Greek dessert that is reminiscent of bread pudding. Phyllo pastry is toasted, folded into a custard base before baking, then soaked in orange sugar syrup. While not a holiday pie and thus ineligible for the upcoming contest, I hope you give this recipe a try this holiday season.

Broken Phyllo Cake

Adapted from Milk Street by Rose Hattabaugh

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

8 oz Phyllo dough, thawed

1 c Sugar

1 T Orange zest

1 c Whole-fat Greek Yogurt

1 c Grapeseed or other neutral oil

5 Eggs

1 T Baking powder

1 t Salt

Optional - dark chocolate chips, dried fruit, pistachios, or other fold-ins

For the Syrup:

1 c Honey

4 3” strips Orange zest

½ c Orange juice

3 Bay leaves

3 Cardamom pods, crushed

1 Cinnamon stick

Directions:

1. To make the syrup: in a small saucepan, combine honey, orange zest strips, juice, cinnamon, cardamom, bay, and ½ cup water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high, stirring to dissolve the honey, then transfer to a 2-cup liquid measuring cup or small bowl. Cool to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly spray 9”x2” cake pan with cooking spray, line the bottom with parchment paper, lightly spray again
3. Roll the phyllo pastry lengthwise and cut into ½” wide strips. Transfer to a baking sheet and toss gently to separate the strips. Don’t worry if the phyllo breaks; that’s the whole point. Toast in the oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown and crispy, stirring halfway through to ensure even cooking. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.
4. In a bowl (or a stand mixer), beat the sugar and orange zest until fragrant. Add yogurt, oil, eggs, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine thoroughly. Add half of the toasted phyllo strips and fold into the batter until reduced in volume and uniformly moistened. Add the remaining phyllo and fold until no dry spots remain. Fold in any optional ingredients if you want. Pour batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top. Bake until the cake is a deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (45 min - 1 hr). When the cake is almost done, remove the cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, and orange zest from the soaking syrup.
5. Set the cake on a wire cooling rack or pot holder. Using a toothpick or skewer, poke holes in the hot cake every ½” or so. Pour half of the syrup over the cake and let sit for about 5 minutes to absorb. Slowly pour the remaining syrup over the cake. The cake will not immediately take all the syrup, so you will slightly flood the pan. Let sit for about two hours for the syrup to be fully absorbed.
6. Run a paring knife around the inside of the pan. Invert the cake onto a plate, remove the parchment, then re-invert onto a serving plate. Cut into 12 wedges and serve.