Have you ever visited Greece or been to a Greek restaurant?
Have you ever tried some Greek specialty?
If the answer is no, I have to tell you that you’ve missed a lot!
Greek cuisine has a history of 4,000-year long, and it’s famous for the usage of olive oil, grains, vegetables, honey, pastry, and wine. It is an interesting and tasty mixture of traditional Mediterranean ingredients and Greek culture.
The most important thing for my family and me is that Greek cuisine is very healthy and, of course, delicious!
Greek Dessert Recipes
Being a foodie, I’ve experimented with and attempted to improve a lot of dishes.
You can only imagine how amazed I was when I discovered Greek cuisine and how eager I was to attempt to cook it myself!
I’m going to expose you to the sweets of the Greek people today, which are an integral part of their culture and cuisine.
They taste fantastic and are absurdly simple to make.
To enhance the flavor and overall experience, I usually try to include a few items with a Mediterranean influence.
A few of my favorite Greek dessert recipes are here.
1. Loukoumades
The time needed: 2 hours
Complexity: Beginner
Loukoumades is a Greek pastry soaked in honey or syrup. They are also called Greek donuts or Greek honey puffs. Loukoumades are one of the most traditional Greek desserts.
Ingredients
- Honey
- Cinnamon
- 1 package dry yeast
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Olive oil or vegetable oil
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Instructions
- Dissolve yeast in one cup of water.
- Add one teaspoon of sugar and one and a half cups of flour.
- When its size is doubled, add water, salt, and flour to make a thick batter.
- Cover again and allow to rise until the batter begins to bubble, which should take about one and a half hours.
- Heat oil in a frying pan to 175 degrees C.
- Take one spoon of batter, form a ball-like shape and drop it into the hot oil. You can put several balls in oil, depending on the size of your pan.
- Fry the balls on each side until they get a golden brown color.
- Take them out of oil, put them in a bowl, and pour honey over them.
- Sprinkle the balls with cinnamon and serve them while they are still warm.
- You can add nuts or walnuts if you want.
- That is it! Enjoy your Loukoumades!
2. Kourabiedes
The time needed: 1h 45 min
Complexity: Beginner
Greek butter cookies made for special occasions, especially for the Christmas holidays. They are my husband’s favorite Greek dessert! Kourabiedes can be made with walnuts or almonds.
Ingredients
- Cups butter (around 450 g)
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon brandy
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 – 4 cups flour
- 1 – 1/2 cups almonds, chopped and roasted
- Rosewater or orange flower water or ouzo
Instructions
- Create cream from the butter and sugar in a mixer for 15 minutes. Mix in the baking powder, salt, and soda.
- Add egg yolks, vanilla extract, brandy, and add the flour gradually.
- Add the almonds
- Mix it up and then let it stand covered for an hour at room temperature (20- 25 degrees C).
- Take 1 teaspoon of our dough in your hands and create a ball or crescent shape. Do this with all dough.
- Put them in a buttered pan and bake at 175 degrees C for 20 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and sprinkle them with rose water (or orange water or ouzo).
- Dust with confectioners’ sugar or roll them in it while they are still warm, then let them cool off.
- Put them on your favorite holiday plate, and Kourabiedes are ready to be served!
3. Yiaourti me meli
The time needed: 10-15 minutes
Complexity: Beginner
Creamy Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts (or nuts). Simple and delicious dessert suitable for every time of the day and year.
Ingredients
- 2 – 1/2 cups Greek yogurt
- 1 – 1/2 cups walnuts (or nuts)
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 of a cup of honey
- Cinnamon powder
Instructions
- Toast the walnuts (or nuts) in the oven at 180C for 7- 8 minutes.
- Put them in a bowl, add the honey and mix them, then let to cool off.
- Mix vanilla extract and yogurt
- Add the walnut-honey mixture over the yogurt.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon.
- Mix them, and then add a little more cinnamon on top.
- The sweet is ready to enjoy in it! You can store it in the fridge for later.
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4. Koulourakia
The time needed: 30 minutes.
Complexity: Beginner
Cinnamon cookies with red wine. They are very easy to make, but they have one big flaw – they can disappear very, very fast! They go well with a cup of tea or a french press coffee. The best choice for the wine is Greek Mavrodaphne, but you can use any other sweet red wine you prefer.
Ingredients
- 450ml olive
- 180ml red wine
- 90ml orange juice
- 90ml sugar
- 1 tablespoon grounded cinnamon
- 1 – 1/2 flat teaspoon grounded clove
- zest of 1 – 1/2 orange
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 kg soft flour
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 80gr sesame seeds, roasted
Instructions
- Add sugar and olive oil to a large bowl and mix.
- Add the orange juice and baking soda to another bowl and blend
- Mix those two together and add wine, cinnamon, clove, orange zest, and sesame seeds.
- Whisk them real good.
- Mix the flour with 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder.
- Add 1/2 kg of the flour to the mix and knead the dough.
- Add the rest of the flour and keep kneading the dough.
- The dough should not be sticky.
- Prepare baking trays with parchment paper.
- You can shape the cookies any way you like and then put them in baking trays.
- Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake for 25-30 minutes.
- When they get nice brown color, they are ready to be enjoyed!
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5. Greek Baklava
The time needed: 1 h 30 minutes + 8 hours
Complexity: Intermediate
Baklava is a sweet delicacy made of layers of phyllo pastry, filled with walnuts and soaked in syrup. Baklava is part of the tradition of many cuisines, including Levant, Mediterranean, Balkans, and Central and West Asia.
I have to admit Baklava is the best Greek dessert I’ve ever tasted!
Ingredients
- 1 lb phyllo pastry
- 1 cup butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. To make sure, you can use an oven thermometer.
- Place two sheets of phyllo in the bottom of a buttered baking dish and brush it evenly with butter.
- Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of chopped walnuts and a little cinnamon on top.
- Place all of the remaining phyllo sheets one at a time and repeat applying butter, walnuts, and cinnamon. Leave one or two layers of phyllo for the top of the Baklava, and don’t apply the rest of the ingredients on top of them.
- Cut it in squares, cutting through all layers.
- Bake in the oven for about one hour.
- Add remaining sugar, lemon juice, honey, and water in a saucepan and cook and stir until boil.
- Pour the mixture over hot Baklava.
- Cover Baklava and let it stand for 8 hours.
Bring the joy and delight of having Greek desserts in your life!
As you can see, Greek desserts aren’t difficult to prepare. On the other hand, they taste amazing. Their only flaw is that they can’t last long in a family house. It’s simply not possible!
Try some of these recipes, and let me know how they turned out! 🙂
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