December 3, 2020

MANOURI CHEESE TARTLETS

A recipe by Eugenia Makrogianneli

These dainty little tartlets make us think of a cheesecake pie. Inspired by the traditional recipe of “Kaltsounia”, a sweet pastry with a soft fresh cheese filling that you find in different shapes & variations throughout Greece.

Serve with fruit or a drizzle of Greek honey.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

500g all purpose flour, plus a little extra for kneading the dough

10g baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

100g sugar

100ml milk

50ml olive oil

2 eggs

For the filling:

800g Odysea Manouri Cheese PDO

300g sugar

1 egg + 1 egg white (keep the yolk for brushing*)

1 tsp cinnamon

zest of 1 large unwaxed lemon

*egg yolk beaten into a small amount of milk for brushing the tartelettes before baking

Instructions

  1. Sieve all dry ingredients and place in the bowl of an electric mixer. With the motor running, start adding the milk, olive oil and lastly the eggs, one by one. Mix until you get a soft elastic dough.
  2. Place the dough in the fridge to rest for about 1 hour.
  3. Roll out the dough into sheets of 2mm thickness and cut out 9 cm rounds. Cover with a clean towel to prevent the dough for drying out while you prepare the manouri filling.
  4. To make the filling mash the manouri cheese with a fork and add in the sugar, egg and egg white, cinnamon and lemon zest. Mix well to combine the ingredients.
  5. Add a large spoonful of manouri mix to each circle of pastry and fold over the edges of the pastry into a triangular shape to encase the filling.
  6. Place manouri tartelettes on to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, brush with egg and milk wash and bake in a preheated fun assisted oven at 180 °C for 15-20 min.

Products used in this Recipe