Moustokouloura: Grape must cookies

Friday April 8th, 2022Friday April 8th, 2022 aglaia Leave a comment

Much like Orange Koulourakia Cookies, you can get moustokouloura (grape must cookies) in the bakeries and in many homes all over Greece all year-round these days. They are made from grape must, the juice of grapes that is used to make house wine, something that used to be done in most parts of the country.

The cookies are deep-flavored and delicious. The grape must is boiled down to become thick petimezi (grape molasses) an pantry item in most traditional homes. Syrupy petimezi is diluted with an equal amount of water to make the cookies.

Grape must cookies, right, and Orange Koulourakia, left.

The sweetness of the petimezi determines their taste, as moustokouloura have no additional sugar. Commercial moustokouloura are usually large, but the homemade ones are smaller.

See also the Ginger and Grape Molasses cookies, my variation of the Ginger Snap ones.

To get 2 1/2 cups traditional petimezi (grape molasses) you need to simmer for about 1 hour or more 2 ½ kilos (5 pounds) grape juice. But to achieve the taste of my favorite island moustokouloura, made in August with the local fresh grape must, or with thinned down petimezi (grape molasses), I boil ordinary grape juice with sultanas and/or currents, and the result is great (see Note).

Makes about 3 dozen large cookies (more…)

Strawberry Cake with Raisins and Almonds

Thursday March 17th, 2022Thursday March 17th, 2022 aglaia Leave a comment

This is my new, spring version of our beloved Quince Cake that started from a recipe of an apple cake/sharlotka by Darra Goldstein. This very easy, wonderful cake has become our go-to winter treat and I was making it all the time.

Now that strawberries appeared in the market, I adapted Darra’s basic recipe for this early spring fruit.

For a 9-inch round cake –or equivalent square, or 1 large or 2 small loaves (more…)

Irresistible Plant Based Pasta Dishes

Wednesday March 2nd, 2022Wednesday March 2nd, 2022 aglaia Leave a comment

While in most parts of the world pasta is closely associated with butter and cheese, in Greece we have lots of traditional plant-based pasta dishes, without a trace of animal components. They were the staple of the numerous Lenten days, almost half the year –according to the old Orthodox calendar.

A humble leftover lentil soup becomes a delicious vegan pasta with complex flavor, while in my Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts I created the Lebanese-inspired Linguine with Spicy Lentils and Caramelized Onions.

Our plant-based, vegan dishes are not contrived, but created by the women who had to bring a delicious, filling dish to their family’s table.

(more…)

Spanakopita-like Bread with Greens, Scallions, Herbs, and Cheese

Tuesday February 8th, 2022Wednesday February 9th, 2022 aglaia Leave a comment

I usually have pieces of my basic bread or laganes dough in the fridge, so the other day I decided to use the wild greens Costas had collected from the garden to make this fast and irresistible greens and cheese tart, or pizza-like spanakopita. If you like, you can top the greens with a mixture of yogurt and egg just before transferring the skillet to the oven (see variation).

You can probably make this spanakopita-bread with store-bought, whole-wheat pizza dough, if you are not up to making you own bread dough from scratch.

For a 9-inch round bread, or 2 stuffed loaves (more…)

Very Lemony ‘Chess Pie’

Saturday February 5th, 2022Thursday February 10th, 2022 aglaia Leave a comment

I came across a picture of this wonderful, lemony pie at the bottom of my old friend Ari Weinzweig’s inspiring weekly newsletter. I was very intrigued; Ari had no recipe, just mentioned that the pie was sold at Zingerman’s Bakehouse, part of his iconic deli empire in Ann Arbor.

I never heard of this dessert and was baffled by its name. Looking it up I found lots of recipes online. I chose the one from King Arthur Mill, since I love their products, and know that their recipes work, as I have occasionally used them as starting point for my baking.

I substituted olive oil for the shortening and butter in the recipe, as I always do, and added some carob flour to the crust, because I wanted to make it dark, thinking that the lemon cream would be light-colored, so the contrast would be nice. Of course the filling darkened considerably by the time it set, as the sugar-lemon-egg cream develops a deep dark caramel color…

In the notes, I read that the word “chess” in the recipe’s title “…some food historians say it’s a takeoff on “cheese,” as in English cheese pies, similar to American cheesecake — the filling is of a consistency similar to chess pie. Others say ‘chess’ refers to the chest in which pies used to be kept; due to the high degree of sugar, chess pies didn’t need to be refrigerated (though in these days of heightened awareness of food safety, we do recommend refrigeration). One final theory holds that chess refers to the simplicity of the pie itself. “What kind of pie is that?” “Jes’ pie.” Chess pie.”

For a 9″ pie (8 to 12 servings) (more…)