Ruffled filo pie with pistachios and honey

This scrumptious recipe is an adaptation of a Greek dessert, with a creamy baked custard base and crispy filo pastry top. Don’t be intimidated by the milky frills and ruffles, it really is easy to make and even easier to eat.

Ruffled filo pie with pistachios and honey Credit: Petrina Tinslay

• serves

  8

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  1 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 8 sheets filo pastry
• 60 g butter, melted
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1½ cups milk
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp honey
• ¼ cup roasted pistachios, roughly chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease and line a 20 cm (8 inch) cake pan.

Place the filo pastry on the benchtop and cover lightly with a damp cloth, this will prevent the pastry from drying out and cracking. Take out 1 sheet of pastry and lay it lengthways on the benchtop. Lightly brush the pastry with a little melted butter. Ruffle up the pastry so that you bring the long sides closer together, then coil up the length of ruffled filo to create a rosette. Place this into the greased cake pan and repeat with the remaining pastry and more butter. Place 7 rosettes of pastry around the outside of the cake pan and 1 in the centre.

Liberally brush the top of the pastry with the remaining butter and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 30 minutes.

While the pastry is cooking, place the milk in a saucepan over a medium heat and bring to a simmer. While the milk is warming place the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl and whisk well. Gradually pour in the hot milk while whisking the mixture until all the milk has been added.

Remove the cake pan from the oven and pour over the egg custard mixture. Return to the oven and cook for another 30 minutes or until the custard sets.

Remove from the oven and allow to stand for a few minutes before pulling apart into rosettes for serving. While still hot, drizzle with honey and sprinkle with pistachios.

Photography by Petrina Tinslay, styling by David Morgan and art direction by Anne Marie Cummins.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.