The refugees from Asia Minor brought with them not only their precious memories, but also a rich mosaic of flavors and fine recipes that have since become an integral part of their cultural heritage. Traditional, syrupy and stuffed, Tsimpista from Kozani are made mainly during the Christmas season, but not only, since anyone who tries them will hardly forget them...
Medium
20 - 25 min
70 pcs
Ingredients
For the dough
- 500 g butter, unsalted
- 120 g sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 can evaporated milk (410 g)
- 1 teaspoon soda
- 15 g baking powder
- 200 g fine semolina flour
- 1 kg all - purpose flour (+ 30 - 50 g for kneading)
For the syrup
- 1 kg sugar
- 1 kg water
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 vanilla
- 2 tbsp honey
- Juice of 1 lemon
For the filling
- 200 g coarsely chopped walnuts
- 1/3 tbsp clove powder
- 1 tbsp cinnamon powder
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp dried breadcrumbs
- Finely chopped walnuts for sprinkling
How to
For the syrup:
- In a saucepan, add the water, the sugar and the cinnamon stick.
- Stir and boil for 10 - 12 min. In the last 3 min add the vanilla and the lemon juice, stirring.
- Let it cool.
- Remove from the heat, add the honey, stir until it dissolves and allow it to cool.
For the filling:
- In a bowl, mix all the ingredients.
For the dough and to complete the recipe:
- In a mixing bowl, beat the margarine and sugar until white and fluffy.
- Sift the flour, add the baking powder and semolina and mix.
- Add the eggs to the bowl, then the milk, in which we have dissolved the baking soda.
- Add the dry ingredients and continue beating just until fully incorporated—do not overmix.
- Divide the dough into 35g balls, roll them out and fill them. Fold them into triangles and "pinch" them with the special tweezers or another similar tool.
- Transfer to a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated oven (set to fan) at 355 oF - 180 oC for 20 - 25 min (depending on your oven).
- When they come out of the oven, dip them into the cold syrup, turn them in the syrup for about 1 min and transfer to an airtight container with a slotted spoon. Immediately sprinkle them with chopped walnuts and close the container when cooled.
Note from Greek jar:
In the traditional recipe, margarine is used. I chose to replace it with fresh unsalted butter, and the result was even better.
I didn’t have the special tweezers, so I got creative and used the fish-bone tweezers to shape my little designs! Of course, with the proper tool, the patterns would come out prettier!
