How to Make Tiropita - Tiropita Recipe

How to Make Tiropita

Ingredients

2 pounds of feta cheese, drained of any excess liquid and crumbled.
Lemon zest
Ricotta cheese (optional)
Nutmeg (optional)
Toasted walnuts (optional)
Honey (optional)
Spinach (optional. Adding spinach makes these spanakopita)
3 eggs, beaten
1 or more cubes of butter
1 pound of filo pastry sheets. Completely thaw the filo in the refrigerator and in its packaging if it was frozen.

How to make it

Steps

1 Crumble the feta cheese. 

A pair of forks works well. Beat the eggs.

2 Mix the beaten eggs into the feta.

 Refrigerate this filling mixture for about 30 minutes. The refrigeration step is optional, but it gives you time to prepare everything else.

3 Melt the butter over low heat and keep it warm. 

You can clarify the butter by skimming off the white solids.

Keep the butter warm in a small crock pot, over a very low flame, or by storing it in a heavy, ceramic pot. You can microwave it for a few seconds now and then to reheat.

4 Unfold the filo and spread it on waxed paper. 

Measure the filo on the short side and decide if you will cut it into two, three, or four strips. It's better to have strips that are too wide than too narrow.

5 Use clean scissors or a sharp knife to cut the filo sheets into strips about 4 inches (10cm) wide. 

You can cut a stack of several sheets at once.

Folding the dough back along itself as you go can help to keep the cuts straight and parallel to the edge.

6 Work with a moderate number of sheets at a time, perhaps a dozen or so.

 Roll extra sheets tightly in waxed paper and store them in the refrigerator until you are ready to work with them. Filo that dries out tears much more easily.

7 Spread a generous length of waxed paper onto a table and have the filling, melted butter, pastry brush, trays or baking sheets, and filo close at hand.

8 Lay a strip of filo on waxed paper and brush it generously with warm, melted butter.

 The butter makes the filo bake to a flaky crisp. (In the photo, instead of waxed paper, there's a blue silicone baking sheet, for contrast.)

9 Place one to two tablespoons of the feta mixture on one end of a strip of filo.

 You can eyeball the quantity according to the size of the strip.

10 Fold the filo around the filling on a diagonal so that the corner meets the opposite edge.

11 Fold the tiropita straight up, following the edge.

12 Repeat the diagonal and straight folding until you reach the end.

 If there is a bit of extra, tuck it in or simply fold it around and stick it to the outside.

This is the same fold used for the United States flag, after it has been folded in half twice.

13 Brush the entire outside surface with more melted butter.

14 Lay the tiropita on a baking sheet in a single layer with a little space in between them. 

If you are making the tiropita before an event, you can stack them between sheets of waxed paper and freeze them until you are ready.

15 Bake at 375ºF (190ºC) for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and crispy. 

Frozen tiropita will take a little longer to bake than thawed ones. Serve hot.