PORTOKALOPITA (PHYLLO ORANGE PIE WITH SYRUP)

 
This is a recipe for a  pie called portokalopita. The word "portokal" means "orange" in Macedonian. Believe it or not, it is made with phyllo, though it does not look like it. It is very important how you crush the layers, on bigger or smaller pieces. I didn't want my pie to look like gibanica and I crushed them so much that they came out almost as flour, and in many recipes they are sliced ​​into larger pieces, so the choice is yours on how crushed you want them to be.
It is best to wash the oranges well with a brush before use and then immerse them in baking soda.
Ingredients:

For the cake:
  •     1 pack Phyllo layers (500 g)
  •     4 large eggs
  •     1 cup sugar (200 g)
  •     1 1/4 cup thick yogurt (300 ml)
  •     1 1/4 cup orange juice
  •     1 cup sunflower oil
  •     2 sachets vanilla sugar
  •     zest of 2 oranges
  •     1 tablespoon baking powder
For the syrup:
  •     1 cup sugar
  •     1 cup lukewarm water
  •     1/2 cup orange juice
  •     1 cinnamon stick
  •     zest of 1 orange 




Preparation:
  1. Open the phyllo layers and leave them to dry nicely, preferably overnight. Then break them by hand to the desired size.
  2. Make the syrup by boiling sugar, water, orange juice, orange peel and cinnamon and let it boil at medium heat for a few minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and allow the syrup to cool completely before pouring over the hot pie.
  3. Oil the baking pan or coat it with baking paper. I used a pan of 20 x 20 cm, but it could be bigger so that you don't get too high pie.
  4. Mix eggs well with sugar, add sour milk, orange zest and juice, baking powder and vanilla, mix on medium speed. Then add the oil and mix well. Finally, add the crushed layers, mix well with a spoon and pour this mixture into the baking pan and align well.
  5. Bake for about 1 hour at 180 C degrees, checking occasionally with a toothpick if it's baked.
  6. After baking, cut into slices and immediately pour over the cold syrup over the hot pie.Let it soak well.
  7. Consume the next day.