when it comes to desserts most people I know would rather go for anything with chocolate…but believe me when I say that when I offered portokalopita in a cooking session to people I only knew for 3 hours the most unexpected reaction I got from a mate was “… can I give you a hug?”

the recipe

ingredients

for the cake

• 450gr. Filo dough for pastries
• 3 eggs
• 180gr. crystal white sugar
• 200gr. Greek yogurt
• 165ml. sunflower oil
• 250ml. fresh orange juice
• skin from 2 oranges
• 8gr. baking powder
• extract from 1 vanilla stick

for the syrup

• 530gr. crystal white sugar
• 550ml. water

directions

in order to successfully integrate the syrup into the cake, the cake needs to be half warm and the syrup really warm, so start preparing the cake first.

for the cake

• The most important thing about this recipe is to make sure that the Filo dough is as dry as it gets. So, unroll the pieces and lay each Filo (each piece) separately for a while so that it becomes dry and breaks into small pieces. That could take up to 40′ but either way you can decide that by testing it- it should’t be soft at all.
• When the Filo is dry enough break it with your hands into really small pieces in a bowl.
• Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C and grease a 30x20cm deep baking pan.
• Using a mixer, put the eggs and sugar together and mix them until you get a smooth mixture.
• With the mixer always on, add the yogurt, oil, orange juice, orange skin, baking powder and vanilla. In the end you should have a delicious orange smelling thick mixture.
• Sprinkle into the mixture the Filo pieces little by little and mix continuously using a big spoon. You should make sure that the Filo pieces don’t “stick together” but are nicely mixed with the orange mixture.
• Place the final mixture into the baking pan and bake for 35′-40′ depending on your oven.

for the syrup

• Put the sugar and water in a pot and start warming it up. From the moment it starts boiling you need to leave it there for 8 more minutes. Remove from the fire and let it be for 2′-3′.
• With a big spoon pour the syrup slowly on top of the baked cake making sure that you cover all the cake surface.  Let the cake absorb the syrup for a while, it will take 4′-5′ for that.

When the dessert is cold you can have the first bite!

Enjoy!