Greek Cheese Pie Tiropita Recipes

Steps:

• 1. Add feta cheese, cottage cheese and ricotta in a medium size bowl and mix together. Add your seasonings and 7 eggs that have been whisked together.
• 2. Melt your butter and margarine in a small pan and begin brushing each filo sheet with butter on both sides. I would do 15 - 20 sheets.
• 3. This is a photo of the filo sheets while working with them. I just laid them on a piece of wax paper and then some plastic wrap over the top of them. Then a damp wet clothe to keep them most as you work buttering sheet to sheet.
• 4. Begin adding your sheets to your pan that you are going to bake your pie in. It is ok if they tear or are not perfectly straight. It will all work out.
• 5. Add cheese filling on top of the filo sheets.
• 6. Add remaining filo sheets, 10 to 11, brushing each with melted butter. Score into 24 or 36 pieces. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Oh, I also sprinkled a little greek seasonings on the top as well. For the top, I would do again 15 - 20 sheets.
• 7. You can serve this warm or cold the next day right out of refrigerator. I love it either way, it is that good.
• 8. I scored this to 12 slices because we ate it as a side dish with soup but you could easily get 24 smaller slices.
• 9. Here is the feta that I used....it is so so good!

Steps:

• Thaw phyllo dough completely.
• Melt the 6 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan.
• Whisk in the flour and cook slightly (1-2 minutes) to get rid of 'raw' flour taste.
• Slowly whisk in the milk.
• Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until sauce thickens.
• Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
• Quickly whisk the eggs into the sauce one at a time.
• Then stir in the cheese.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Butter a 13 X 9" Pyrex baking dish generously (you can also use a larger baking pan - the tiropita just comes out a little thinner, but is nicer for appetizer servings).
• Flatten phyllo dough and cover with a sheet of wax paper and a lightly dampened towel (to avoid drying out).
• Take one sheet at a time and place in baking dish.
• Brush phyllo generously with butter.
• Use about 6 sheets this way and then add 1/2 of cheese filling.
• Layer 3 more sheets of phyllo (brushing each one with butter) and then top with remaining cheese filling.
• Finally, layer 6 sheets of phyllo over top (brushing each one with butter) and fold in the edges to make the tiropita look neat.
• Brush top generously with remaining butter.
• Score top of phyllo carefully with the point of a sharp knife, just cutting through pastry (only cut through the top layers of pastry, do not cut all the way down to the bottom layer), into the size of pieces you will want to serve.
• Make sure you don't cut right through pie.
• Bake for about 45 minutes to one hour, or until golden brown.
• (Make sure bottom crust is nice and golden- if it isn't- put it directly on floor of oven for about 10 minutes to brown faster. You don't want a soggy, uncooked bottom pastry).
• Variation: I often add 8 oz. of a good-quality, chopped, smoked ham to the cheese filling.