Kalitsounia (Cretan cheese mini tarts)

 This is one of  my favorite Cretan (island of Greece) sweets. 

My brother came to visit one summer and bought 20 euro worth of them, the women behind the counter asked twice if he is sure :) he said he prefers to eat a lot of them so he will not want them ever again.Well he still wants them :) so I decided finally to try to make them my self .

(recipe from a Cretan brochure)

Makes 35

Ingredients:

For the filo pastry:

• 3 tbsp fresh butter 
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 whole egg & 1 yolk
• 15-20 finely ground blanched almonds 
• 1 cup water
• flour, as needed (about 500 gr)
• salt 

For the filling:

• 1 kg mizithra(Cretan cheese) or ricotta 
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp fresh butter
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1-3 yolks
• salt
• cinnamon 

 Mix the ingredients for the filo pastry and prepare a soft dough. Thinly roll out the dough in sheets and set aside for 2-3 hours.

 Mash the cheese with a fork and mix the sugar, cinnamon, fresh butter and egg yolks. 

 Cut the pastry in rounds (the size of a saucer) and brush them with whisked egg white. Place a heaped tsp of filling on each round and fold the pastry over to make a half moon shape. Press the edges to seal completely. Brush the pies again with beaten egg yolk and bake for 15 minutes at 180°C.

So that was the recipe. 

Now some fast tips(that I hope help):

• have the butter and eggs at room temperature;
• I used 6 tbsp of ground almonds; (if you have a nut allergy, use fine semolina )
• cold tap water is fine;
• I needed at list 50 gr more of flour;
• keep the dough in a cool place;
• when you roll the dough use oil  not flour for the dough to not stick;
• you can also use cottage cheese;
• I used 3 egg yolks for the cheese filing;
• I added 1 tsp cinnamon to the cheese and used some for dusting before baking.
• as you can see i didn't follow the recipe and made a different shape, I used small muffin tins, did all of the above .This shape is that of the picture from the brochure and the one i'm used with .

• In my oven I had to keep them for 45 min-1h.
• I recommend that you eat them the second day or when they cool down, the taste it's better.

 hope you enjoy them as much as I do :)