CREAMY SWEET CUSTARD PASTRY WITH PHYLLO

Light and creamy pastry, with a semolina based custard filling, topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon...Every bite of this pastry is a little trip to heaven.  Light and mouth melting, this recipe is suitable for beginners since you don't need to knead the crust, you just buy a pack of good phyllo pastry sheets for pie and the preparation of the cream is not hard, just follow the instructions.


Ingredients:

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 4 1/2 cups milk 
  • 3/4 cups fine semolina
  • 2 sachets vanillin sugar 
  • 1 tsp of  vanilla extract
  • zest of one orange
  • 1 cup of melted butter (for sprinkling the phyllo sheets)
  • 1 packet of phyllo pastry sheets for pie (you might not use all of them)
  • cinnamon and icing sugar 
Preparation:

  1. Preheat oven to 180 C (356 F).
  2. Whisk eggs with a mixer in a bowl and set aside.
  3. Warm milk on a medium heat and add orange zest, sugar, vanilla sugar and vanilla extract.
  4. Slowly add semolina to the milk mixture and stir, keep adding until it starts to thicken. Be careful not to burn the custard.
  5. Take the custard mixture off the heat and slowly add eggs to custard and gently mix through.
  6.  Cover with plastic wrap to avoid forming a crust.
  7. Butter a rectangular medium sized dish and place a sheet of  phyllo, sprinkle melted butter and lay it in the dish with the edges overhanging. Repeat with another 8-10 sheets changing the angle slightly each time as you lay the fillo into the dish (this creates an even edge of fillo around the dish). Ensure that you drizzle butter between each sheet.
  8. Pour custard and spread evenly. 
  9. Place 6 sheets of phyllo on top, sprinkling melted butter on each layer. Ensure that the last layer has butter evenly spread and all pieces of fillo are tucked in.
  10. If you can, cut the top of the pie  in pieces before baking.
  11. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.
  12. Gently remove from pan and when it's lukewarm, dust with icing sugar and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cut and serve!