Authentic Greek Cheese Pie from Epirus
With a detailed video demonstrating the traditional filo-making technique

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients exactly as Katerina and I measured them—although, what did you expect? She measures absolutely nothing; everything is done by eye…

For the enormous baking tray you can see in the photos and the video, she used…

For the dough

8 ladlefuls of flour (using the ladle we serve soup with)
1/2 cup corn oil
1 Tbsp salt
Water as needed, until the dough no longer sticks to your hands

For brushing the filo sheets

1 cup butter
1 cup corn oil

For the filling

500 g goat’s milk feta
500 g myzithra cheese
10 eggs
1/2 cup of the butter and corn oil mixture

Instructions

I will also give you the written instructions because, until Katerina had finished making the pie, there were certain stages when even I couldn’t quite understand what she was doing. So, let’s get started…

Place the flour and salt in a large bowl and gradually add water until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. Add the corn oil and continue kneading until it is fully absorbed into the dough.

Divide the dough into eight pieces. Roll out four of them into sheets the same size as the baking tray you will be using. Leave them to dry slightly—not until they become completely dry, but just long enough for the excess moisture to evaporate. If possible, use the oven to help them dry, especially during the winter.

And as you can see, now that I had found a true master of the craft, I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to roll out a sheet myself and ask for her advice.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and mix it with the oil. Katerina recommends using corn oil for cheese pie but olive oil for savoury greens pie.

Crumble the cheeses and mix them with the eggs. Add half a cup of the butter and oil mixture and stir well. Hmm… from now on, I’ll call it “butter-oil” for short!

Next, add enough water to make the filling pourable but not watery. You can also see the consistency in the video.

Brush the baking tray with the butter-oil mixture and roll out one of the four remaining pieces of dough. Make this sheet slightly larger than the tray. Lay it in the tray and drizzle it with some of the butter-oil mixture.

It was extremely hot that day, and Katerina rolled the sheet so thin that small holes gradually began to appear. If this happens to you too, don’t worry; the next sheet will cover them.

Roll out the second sheet to the same size as the first, so that it also extends beyond the edges of the tray. Place it over the first sheet and drizzle with more of the butter-oil mixture.

Next, use the four sheets you rolled out and left to dry earlier. Add some of the butter-oil mixture and one quarter of the filling between each sheet, repeating the layers four times: one sheet, butter-oil and filling.

At this stage, you will have two pieces of dough left for the final two sheets. Roll out one piece to the size of the baking tray and lay it over the filling. Before rolling out the final sheet, fold the overhanging edges of the two larger bottom sheets inward. Drizzle with the butter-oil mixture.

Roll out the final piece of dough to the size of the tray and use it to cover the pie. Spread the butter-oil mixture over the entire surface and sprinkle with a little water. Do not cut or score the pie before baking.

The pie was baked in a wood-fired oven, and during baking they rotated the tray so that the other side would bake evenly too. Those of us using an electric oven, where the heat circulates all around, do not need to rotate the tray.