This Greek dessert collects much of the pastry tradition of the East, very different from the Western. Firstly, it uses phyllo dough. Phyllo does not rise like puff pastry, but when baking it is simply toasted and stiff, as if it were a piece of paper. It is essential for many preparations such as the Turkish börek or the Austrian apfelstrudel. It is a type of pasta that does not interfere with the filling it contains while it fulfills its function perfectly. Currently it is very easy to find in almost any establishment.
On the other hand, bougatsa uses semolina to give consistency to the dough, instead of the usual flour that would be used in western countries. Semolina is the result of crushing durum wheat grains - the same one used to make Italian pasta, but not to make bread - and the different types would be classified according to the size of the resulting flour. The thickest size is usually known as coarse semolina or bulgur and the medium as couscous. The finest grain is semolina.
Finally you will see that a lot of butter is used, something common in Greek and Turkish meals and pastries.
INGREDIENTS :
4 sheets of phyllo dough
300 ml (1 and a half cup) of whole milk
200 ml (1 cup) of liquid cream (you can use cooking, with 18% of fat, or whipping, with 35 or 38% of fat)
100 grams (3.5 oz) of very fine semolina
60 grams (2 oz) of icing sugar (impalpable)
30 grams (1 oz) of butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
Unsalted butter
To decorate :
Icing sugar
Ground cinnamon
In a saucepan, heat the milk with the cream. At the first bubble of boiling, we lower the heat to a minimum and add the semolina and sugar, without stopping stirring, until we obtain a smooth cream (a kind of porridge).
When it is homogeneous, remove from the heat and add the butter, stirring well. Since the mixture is hot it will melt right away.
We let the mixture temper and then add the egg and the zest of the orange peel. Mix well.
We must then have a rectangular tray that can go to the oven about 20 cm (8 inches) long. We paint the inside with melted butter and on it we place 1 of phyllo dough. As it is larger, it will overflow on both sides.
We in turn paint it with melted butter to place on top of it another sheet of phyllo dough. On both sheets we pour the dough that we have obtained previously and then we close the phyllo paste that protruded from the mold on top of it, enclosing it as if it were a package.
We paint again with butter and above all we place another sheet of pasta, we paint again with butter and we place the last one on top, brushing it also with melted butter.
We preheat the oven to 200 degrees (392 F) and bake for 15 minutes or until it looks golden.
We extract, let cool and remove from the mold. The surface is dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon, in addition to which it is usually cut into portions according to the number of diners. Do not worry if the surface appears cracked and broken, it is its normal appearance.