Portokalopita, the greek orange cake!

Years ago, when I have visited the greek island of Leros, a kind lady gave me the recipe of "patsavouropita" - a typical desert of their island. I made it immediately when I have returned home but at some point with time, I've lost the recipe, which I regret. Much later on, a similar cake "portokalopita" became very popular in Greece. Often tourists taste it at the end of a dinner at a restaurant or taverna as a treat and they just love it! 

I profit from this revival to gather various recipes from family, friends and online (thank you all!) and end up with my own. Here's my favorite that thanks to my blog I will keep for the years to come and I will pass it to my children :) 

Ingredients

~3 oranges (to end-up with 100ml+140ml=240ml of juice for syrup and dough)

Syrup

400ml of water

330 gr of sugar

100ml of orange juice

1 cinnamon stick

Dough

450gr of filo (greek special dough for pies, can be found in oriental products)

4 eggs

160gr of sugar

1 cup of sunflower oil (I often use butter that I melt)

300gr of greek yoghurt

140ml of orange juice

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda

some salt

orange (or lemon) zest 

Procedure

Cut the filo roll in thin slices (~2cm) and open with your hands all the mini rolls on a big oven tray.

Put in the oven at 95 degrees of Celsius for 10min to dry, take it out, return the slices and put it back for 10 more min. Let it cool completely.

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees this time. Butter a rectangular oven dish of 32x22cm.

In the mixer, prepare the dough starting by mixing the eggs with the sugar for 4min. Add the rest of the ingredients (mix the soda in the orange juice) and mix slightly. When the dough is ready, add little by little the filo and mix with a spoon (do not put all of it in once!). 

Empty to the buttered dish and bake for approximately 30-40min depending on your oven until it gets a marvelous golden crispy top.

Prepare the syrup by boiling for 5-7min all the ingredients together. let it cool. 

When the cake is done, take it out of the oven, make small holes oll aver with a stick and pour the syrup little by little all over. Let it sit for 2-3 hours and then save it in the fridge - if you can resist of course ! Here it is never the case :) 

Enjoy!!!! If only I could share here the smell and the taste....