How to make a greek pie

Posted on November 18, 2013 in Demonstration, Filo & Bread

The steps demonstrate the preparation of a traditional zucchini pie. Hints for making successful pies are provided in this post.

Small tips for successfull pies

Hard wheat flour from village makes the best sheet.
You will not make the perfect sheet on your first try. Keep trying. You will soon find out your own secrets.
The right thin rolling-pin can be found at open-air markets, and at Athinas Street, in those little stores selling hangers and mortars.
We can spread many sheets and preserve them in the freezer, wrapping each one separately in plastic wrap. A few minutes defrosting before usage is enough.
The sheet “loves” oil. Spray some on it before you put in the oven. Corn-oil makes the end result much crunchier.
Never expect a tastier result with ready-made pastry sheet.
We never cover our pie after taking it out of the oven – we want to preserve the pastry crispy.
Spinach-pies with frozen spinach do not have the taste of the fresh vegetable. During the summer, we can replace frozen spinach with fresh blite.
You can spread any remaining dough in little round pieces, add some oil, oregano and ground cheese, thus creating lovely tiny home-made pizzas.

Demonstration

Step 1: Using a thin rolling pin start rolling out the filo sheets.

Step 2: Place each filo sheet into the baking pan. A round baking pan is better than a rectangular one because it is easier to spread the dough and shape it into a circle than shape it into a rectangular. So if you are an amateur in the process of rolling traditional filo for pies start with round pans.

Step 3: Always baste with oil each filo sheet you are using. Oil makes filo sheets crunchy. Also if you sprinkle the filo with drops of water helps becoming the filo crunchy.

Step 4: You should have prepared the mixture, which you will spread into the baking pan on top of the bottom sheets. The mixture in the picture is for a zucchini pie