This Greek coffee cake recipe is a wonderfully comforting, fruit-filled treasure as a snack or dessert!
Note: this is an adaptation of a recipe found in the cookbook, Hellenic Cuisine: A Collection of Greek Recipes, published by St. Helen’s Philoptochos Society and Sts. Constantine and Helen Parent-Teacher Association.
Ingredients:
- 6 cups of flour
- 6 slightly beaten egg yolks
- 2 cakes of yeast
- 1 tablespoon of sugar for the yeast mixture
- 6 stiffly beaten egg whites
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 egg yolk for the glaze
- ½ lb. of butter
- ½ cup of orange juice
- ½ cup of hot milk
- 2 jars (1 lb. each) of apricot preserves
Directions:
- Scald ½ cup of milk, then cool to lukewarm, adding in the two crumbled cakes of yeast and one tablespoon of sugar. Place this mixture in a 2-cup measuring container (or small bowl) and let it rise to the top/rim.
- Meanwhile, sift the flour in a large mixing bowl, adding in the crumbled butter and mixing it all together until it reaches the consistency of cornmeal.
- Add in 6 slightly beaten egg yolks, the ½ cup of orange juice, and the risen yeast mixture.
- This mixture should now be a light dough, which should be lightly handled and kneaded until the ingredients are thoroughly blended and the mixture cleanly leaves the bowl.
- Sprinkle flour on a board or chosen clean flat surface, roll the dough into a rectangular shape, and cut it into four pieces before setting it aside.
- Add the sugar to the stiffly beaten egg whites.
- Take one of the pieces of dough and roll it out just large enough to fit in a greased 10×15” pan. Trim the dough so that the edges are about to ¼” up the sides of the pan.
- Take half of the egg white and sugar mixture and spread it evenly over this dough.
- Take a second piece of dough, roll it out, and fit it over the previous layer, evenly spreading the two jars of apricot preserves over the entire surface.
- Roll out the third piece of dough and place it over the apricot preserves layer.
- Spread the other half of the sugar and egg whites mixture evenly on top of this third piece of dough.
- Roll out the fourth and final piece of dough and cover the sugar and egg whites mixture.
- Slightly beat 1 egg yolk and brush it over the entire surface of this fourth dough piece.
- Lay the now-assembled cake aside for 30 minutes so that it can rise.
- Bake it at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour, then allow it to cool before cutting it into diamond-shaped pieces.
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