Mpougatsa or Greek Semolina Bake

This is a breakfast dish from Greece. But I ate it for lunch.

A bunch of filo pastry sheets was left over from my asparagus, feta bake. It is a pity to let them get brittle and to throw them in the waste can. 

Most recipes I found were Feta cheese based. But I wanted something else. Then I remembered a kind of cake I had in Thessaloniki for breakfast. But I had no idea what it was or how it was called.

It took me some time to trundle through Pinterest looking for sweet filo pastries. Then I found this one: Mpougatsa.

Recipe for 2:

450 ml whole milk, 

60 g soft wheat semolina, 1 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

70 g sugar

1 egg, 1 egg yolk

200 g filo dough

25 g butter, 1 tbsp grapeseed oil

Cinnamon, icing sugar

Prepare the filling:

Heat up the milk in the microwave. In a pot melt the butter and add the semolina. Coat well in the butter and pour the hot milk over it. Add the sugar and stir well and cook until the semolina pudding is thickened. That will take a bit of time.

Cool down enough not to scramble the eggs. Get them in and the vanilla extract and stir to have a smooth pudding. Cool completely.

Preheat the oven 200 C.

Melt butter in the microwave and add oil. Use a square oven proof dish and brush with the butter mix. Layer the lower 3 filo sheets in, brush every single one with the butter. Layer the first part of pudding on top. Now the next sheet of filo. Brush again and layer pudding on it, next layer until the pudding is gone. Finish with a sheet of filo on top. Brush again.

Take it out and let it cool for 15 min. Sprinkle icing sugar and cinnamon on top. Eat now or cold later. It freezes well.