Best Recipe You’ve Never Heard of: Bougatsa me Krema

Get the recipe for Bougatsa me Krema here: https://bit.ly/4h2G77P

The best recipe you’ve never heard of [read: that Chris had never heard of until a couple weeks ago] is…Bougatsa me Krema! Like all of our “best recipes,” this sweet pastry from Thessaloniki, Greece, is not news to millions of people. But hey, let’s keep it light.

It was through Bougatsa me Krema that we learned that Chris is a self-described “pudding man,” which is part of why he loves this pastry. It’s a custardy base encased in layers of phyllo, often wrapped in packets. We opt for the more freeform, layered version that’s suited to our skill level and supermarket phyllo sheets.

0:00 How to make Greek Phyllo and Cream Pie (Bougatsa me krema)
0:44 What does semolina do in baked goods?
1:11 What is “tempering” in cooking?
2:30 How to work with phyllo dough
4:49 How to bake bougatsa

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All right. What are we doing? We’re making one of the most delicious desserts in the entire world. This is my kind of cooking. It’s puddings. It’s like I’m a pudding guy. [Music] One of the best recipes I’d never heard of is Greek. It’s called bugata. It’s essentially a pastry cream or a vanilla pudding uh with a layer of filo on top and on bottom. You get crispy top layer. You get a nicely set custard in the center. And it’s kind of like taking vanilla pudding and dressing it up and making it special. And it’s not hard to do. Some cinnamon. Get this up to a simmer. No one makes puddings anymore. I don’t know why. I grew up a pudding boy. Now I’m a pudding man. I love puddings. Here’s a magic ingredient. Semolina. I start using it for everything right now. It adds a really kind of custardy uh texture to things. Sugar. Corn starch. You have to thicken this milk. Don’t forget the salt. We’re just whisking this to incorporate some air. Can make it a little fluffier, a little more volume. I think that’s pretty good. So, this is just coming up now to a simmer. So, we’re going to whisk this in. Now, I’m always tempted when it says to temper. I don’t know. I just I don’t like following directions. I like I just want to just throw it in and not worry about it. I think I actually did that once with this recipe and didn’t make any difference. But better to be safe than sorry. Would you not been safe and have been sorry? I’m not talking that wasn’t my fault. So, we’re going to get this to start to simmer. You’ll see some large bubbles and then we’re going to whisk it for a couple more minutes. You want this to be super thick by the time you’re finished. We have pudding. It’s good to go. So, we’re going to want to let it cool off. Let me get this uh stick out of there. Little butter. Four tablespoons. Little lemon zest. You want to zest right over the food you want the zest to go into. If I zest it over the counter, those oils would get lost in the counter and not go into the food. So, the oils are where a lot of the flavor is. This makes me feel like I’m improvising like I’m really a good cook, right? I’m not measuring the lemon zest. I must be a pastry chef for that. And some vanilla. We have to go on to let that cool. I’m going to take a taste because I want to. Delicious. And now we have to muck around with the filo dough, which is actually fun to do. It’s easy. Felos’s, you know, it’s not hard to work with. And what you get is pretty spectacular. So instead of making a pie dough, I mean, you could do this with pie dough, I guess. Um, it’s already made. It’s nice and flaky. Yeah, you tend to butter each layer, but it’s not hard to do. So, it’s really not difficult. Everything worth doing in life is a pain in the ass, right? So, how many things that are super easy in life are really great. So, these are 9 by14. They extend out. And what we’re doing is doing eight sheets of filo at the bottom. We’re going to butter the sides here, but we’re not going to butter this part cuz we’re going to trim that off later. It separates the layers and it keeps it nice and crispy. A little sugar obviously gives you a little bit of sweetness in the dough. Does baking make you a better spouse? That’s actually a very interesting question. I would say yes. Baking uh requires patience. Something I’m not particularly good at. One great thing about baking is very often it looks terrible while you’re doing it. Then you throw in the oven. It comes out. Looks great. So, we got the bottom layer. Whip that up just a little here. Put the cooled pudding on top. You want it to be smooth. Okay. Same drill. Cooking is a great way to forget about what’s going on in the world. As my mother always said, what’s so good about reality? She was right. I don’t think I’d want to work in a Bugattza factory. This would be a really long day. A Bugatti factory, maybe. So, you say this is a little easier than other projects that require FO. No, you’re either you’re in or you’re out on this, right? I mean, you can’t get through this and go like what? It’s not hard. My attitude is if you don’t want to make the recipe, I don’t care. So, I’m making the recipe cuz I care. I love it. So there, that’s all we need to know. Make sure I don’t get the parchment paper. How’d we do? So So uh steam from the pastry cream. The pudding is going to have to be released. You don’t really want to see that. Why not? Cut. Cuz I cut through something with the parchment paper. That’s why I messed up. God. Great job. Great job. Thank you. Thank you. I did it 350° about 50 minutes directly into the oven. Thank god. How do we feel about ourselves? I always feel good about myself. Unless I completely screw it up. So, this is confectionous sugar and a little cinnamon. This is so unlike you. The cinnamon’s optional. Let me put it that way. In my house, I would skip the cinnamon. But, you know, cinnamon’s not bad, actually. Mighty tasty. It’s cute. It’s got flaky on top. It’s got nice pastry cream. It’s not too sweet. Really good. Have a little more. [Music] And I am a pudding man. That’s my t-shirt. I’m a pudding man.