Broken Phyllo Cake from Crete: The Best Recipe You Have Never Heard Of

Christopher Kimball of Milk Street introduces a Cretan cake built on toasted phyllo dough, soaked in citrus sugar syrup. It was introduced to him by cookbook author Marianna Leivaditaki, and he calls it the most interesting cake recipe he has ever encountered.

The Origin: Portokalopita

The recipe is based on a classic Cretan dish called portokalopita, which traditionally uses flour, phyllo dough, and a sugar syrup. The problem with the traditional version is that it tends to come out heavy and soft. Leivaditaki's innovation was to cut the phyllo dough into strips and toast it in the oven first, which gives the cake a much lighter texture.

Preparing the Phyllo

Take half a pound of phyllo dough, roll it up like pasta, and cut it into half-inch strips. Spread the strips on a baking sheet and toast them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes until they are light and crispy.

The Sugar Syrup

Make a sugar syrup with sugar, orange zest, bay leaves, cardamom, water, and orange juice. Let it cool, then strain out the solids.

Assembly and Baking

Make a basic cake batter with yogurt, eggs, and sugar. Fold the toasted phyllo strips into the loose batter. It will look strange, possibly the most unusual cake batter you have ever seen. Pour it into a baking pan and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

While the cake is still warm, poke holes in it with a toothpick. Pour the sugar syrup over the cake in four or five additions, letting it soak in between each pour.

Key Takeaways

• Toasting the phyllo strips before folding them into batter is the key innovation that keeps the cake light
• The citrus sugar syrup (orange zest, bay leaves, cardamom) soaks into the warm cake in stages
• The recipe looks unusual during assembly but produces a unique, crowd-pleasing result
• Based on the Cretan dish portokalopita, adapted by cookbook author Marianna Leivaditaki