kurkubini

One of the delicacies of my hometown, Thessaloniki, are these filo triangles filled with cream. You can mostly find them in Thessaloniki. Only some patisseries in the rest of Greece make them but they are not as good as the original ones. The difference is in the cream which has a very unique and smooth taste. Even in Thessaloniki not every patisserie makes them with the same recipe and the best can only be found in Elenidi which was the baker that first came up with the idea and the recipe in the 1950s. Their name basically means Triangles of Panorama and it’s origin is rather simple as it comes from the area Panorama where they were first made. The local population doesn’t even call them Trigona Panoramatos as for those that love good food the only Trigona that are worth it are Trigona Elenidi.

Elenidis was the son of a shop owner that sold dairy products. Apart from dairy products they also started to make their own ice cream and slowly decided to experiment with a couple more desserts like profiterole. In the 1950s one of the famous patisseries in Thessaloniki, Nikos, was making triangles with puff pastry and filled them with chantilly cream. Elenidis experimented with filo pastry trying to make triangles too. He then had the idea of filling them with a different type of creme. After lots of experimentation and using only fresh ingredients he found the perfect recipe. The end result was so good that in a few months time he had queues of customers waiting outside his store to buy the new dessert.

What draws me to this dessert is its amazing creme. It’s thick but fluffy with a satin texture and a balanced sweetness. I know the recipes I have tried are as perfect as rhe one from Elenidis but the one I am sticking to comes really close to it. I wouldn’t expect their successful recipe to be leaked anyway. The recipe of Trigona is very easy. The only hassle is the making of the filo triangles as their shape has to come out right.

Ingredients:
1/2 kg filo pastry
6 tbsp fine corn flour or niseste
2 sachets of vanilla powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups hot milk and 4-5 tbsp cold milk
4 egg yolks
1 cup chantilly

1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 thick lemon slice

200 gr butter

We cut the filo horizontally in three strip. We layer one strip and brush it lightly with butter. We place another strip on top and we fold in the same way as I had shown when making the cheese pastries. Directions can be found here. We cut the triangle in half and open each half to give it shape.  We fold some baking paper and stuff it.

We continue until we have finished the pastry. After we place the triangles on a baking tray we brush them with the remaining butter from both sides. We bake in a preheated oven at 160º for about 10-15 minutes or until the triangles are light brown.

In the meantime we make the creme. We boil the milk. In a separate pan we mix the corn flour, vanilla, sugar, cold milk and egg yolks until they combine perfectly. Once mixed we slowly pour the mixture in the boiled milk and we continue cooking over medium heat until the creme thickens. Once ready we let it cool down. Once cool we add the chantilly.

While the creme is cooling we boil the sugar with the water and the lemon slice until it gets syropy. We remove from heat and while its still hot we start dipping the triangles one after one making sure they are soaked in syrop. We are careful not to let them in the syrop for too long as we don’t want them to soften.

The final step is to pour the creme in the triangles. We cam decorate with chantilly to secure the cream in them.

Serve warm or cold and store in the refrigerator for up to a week. That is if you don’t succumb to the temptation and eat them straight away!