Tiropitakia Kourou – The Best Greek Cheese Pies You’ll Ever Make!

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Print this recipe here: https://www.dimitrasdishes.com/individual-cheese-pies-with-homemade-kourou-dough-tiropitakia-kourou/

Ingredients
For the dough:

4 cups (540g) all purpose flour
1 cup olive oil
​1 cup (270g) Greek Yogurt
1 egg
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the filling:
8 oz (230-300g) feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
freshly ground pepper to taste
​about 1/4 cup finely chopped mint
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 egg, slightly beaten
​1/4 (56g) cup yogurt
For Topping:
1 egg yolk + 2 tablespoons milk (for egg wash)
Sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
Make the Dough
Preheat the oven to 350°F (160°C).

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar. In another bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, yogurt, and egg, then whisk until smooth. Slowly add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, whisking until it thickens. Use your hands to mix in the remaining flour, being careful not to overmix so the dough stays soft. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 5–10 minutes.

Prepare the Filling
In a mixing bowl, combine feta cheese, mozzarella, yogurt, and the beaten egg. Season with ground black pepper, then mix in the fresh mint and dried oregano until fully incorporated.

Shape the Dough
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the dough into two equal portions, then divide each portion into 8 smaller pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and flatten into a 5-inch circle using your fingertips or a rolling pin. Do not add extra flour at this stage, as it will make the dough dry and tough.

Assemble the Cheese Pies

Place a spoonful of filling in the center of each dough circle. Fold the dough over and press the edges together to seal. Arrange 8 pies on each prepared baking sheet. Use a fork to press down the edges for a decorative design.

Egg Wash and Topping
Whisk together 1 egg yolk and 2 tablespoons of water until smooth. Brush the tops of the pies with the egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds over them.

Bake and Serve
Bake for 20–25 minutes, until the pies are golden brown. Halfway through baking, rotate the trays by moving the bottom tray to the top rack and the top tray to the bottom. Remove from the oven and serve warm.

Notes
Freezer Instructions
Arrange the cheese pies (unbaked) in a single layer on a parchment-lined tray and freeze until firm. Transfer the frozen pies to a freezer-safe bag or airtight container and store for up to 2 months.
Reheating Instructions

Place the frozen pies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in a preheated 325°F (160°C) oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden.

Music Used:
Greek Sun Time (With Intro)
ITEM ID: 66582698
By: tonyanthony

Its All Greek
ITEM ID: 84456733
By: LowNotes

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Hi everyoneas to another episode of Dimitra’s Dishes. Today we’re going to be making the pitaka kuru. These are flaky and tender little cheese pies. They’re Greek cheese pies of course that are made with a yogurt based dough. The whole thing comes together in one bowl. They’re filled with feta cheese and they’re baked until they’re golden and cheesy and so irresistible. Perfect for parties or whenever you want something delicious to serve to your guests. Let me show you how I make them. We’re going to begin by making the dough. So, in a big bowl, this all comes together all in a big bowl, as you will see. I’m going to add one cup of olive oil. This is good quality olive oil. If you like a little bit of a lighter olive oil, you can use that instead. And then I’ll add a cup of Greek yogurt. You want really thick yogurt for this, 270 gram. One egg, a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. I’m just going to squeeze what looks like a tablespoon, possibly more. And then half a teaspoon of sugar, half a teaspoon of salt. And then we’re just going to whisk these up all together until everything is incorporated and smooth. In another bowl, I have four cups or 540 g of all-purpose flour. I’m going to add the flour a little bit at a time. And using a whisk, I’ll whisk it in. And then once I’ve added half of the flour, I’ll just take the whisk out because the whisk won’t be able to handle the dough. And then I’ll switch to my hands. You can use a spatula if you like. Add the remaining flour in a little bit at a time. Knead it very gently. Try not to over knead this dough. This is like a pastry dough. And the less you handle it, the more tender it’s going to be. Once all of the ingredients come together, you can just cover it with a clean kitchen towel and set it aside for about 10 15 minutes. So that way the dough can rest. In the meantime, you can make the cheese filling. So I have 8 oz or 230 gram. This is more like 300 gram. I go heavy with feta. We’re going to have a little bit of feta of the filling left over. Just crumble it into a bowl. You always want to start with whole feta, not the crumbled feta that they sell at the market. That stuff does not compare. Just overly briny and not good quality. And then I’ll add 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt. That’s about 56 g. You could go to 60 gram. That’s fine, too. One egg. I’ll season this with a teaspoon of dried oregano. Lots of freshly cracked black pepper. Pepper goes really well in this. And then about a cup or a big handful of shredded mozzarella cheese. I love using mozzarella because it’s mild in flavor and it lets the feta really stand out. But it really helps with the consistency of the filling and creates that cheesy pull. So if you don’t like mozzarella, you can leave it out. If you want more flavor, more contrast in flavor, you could add your favorite cheese in here. I’m going to finally chop about a/4 of a cup of fresh mint. Just go ahead and finally chop that and add it to the bowl. And we’re just going to mix everything all up until it comes together. I like to do this with a fork and so that way I could beat the egg with it and then mash up the feta, the big chunks of feta that are left in here. And that’s it. The filling is ready. The dough should be ready by now, too. I’m just going to transfer it to a clean work surface. Cut it into two equal portions. And then I’m going to cut each portion into four. And then each of those portions in half. So that way we end up with 16 portions of dough. Get it as equal as possible. You don’t have to take out a scale for this. Some of them will be a little bit bigger than the others, but that’s totally fine. You can roll them lightly using the board or your hand and set them aside. And then I like to do everything in steps. So the first step is portioning the dough. And then I’m going to roll these out just using my hands into about 5 in in diameter circles. The smaller ones might be 4 in. You don’t have You can measure one and then you can use it to kind of have an idea of how big they all need to be. You just want to get them flat, but not too thin and not too thick. Just like this. Get the circles all ready. And then we’re going to spoon the cheese filling on one side of the pastry. And I like again, it moves so much faster when you’re doing everything in steps compared to just rolling out each one, then filling it, then sealing it. It just moves so much faster like this. And now we’re just going to seal them. So, you’re going to fold the dough over and using a fork, press it down the sides so that way it can seal the sides and it also makes this decorative border on the edges. These are going to be transferred onto baking trays that are lined with parchment paper. And you can bake them straight away or you can freeze them. If you’re not using all of them, bake whichever ones you’re going to bake today and the rest can get stored in the freezer. But before that, we’re going to make a little egg wash. So, just one egg yolk with a little bit of milk. Whisk that together. brush it over the tops of the pies. And if you don’t like the taste of egg on there and you don’t care about them being like too golden, you can just skip this step and either brush them with some heavy cream or some milk and it’ll still get a little bit of color on it. So, brush them with the egg wash if you’re using it. And then if you like sesame seeds, you can sprinkle sesame seeds on top. I’ll do two trays with the sesame seeds and the other one will be just plain just so that way I could show you the difference. My oven is preheating to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m using my countertop oven. I love this thing. I got it on Amazon. It’s a count it’s an oven, a toaster, and an air fryer. And it just works beautifully. It bakes beautifully, and I love it. I highly recommend it. I’ll put the link on the blog post for it if you want to take a look at it. And I’ll also put it underneath this video in the description box as well. These are going to bake for about 25 minutes. If you’re using a small oven like this or even a big oven, you want to rotate the trays so that way they bake evenly. Take them out of the oven once they’re ready and let them cool for about five minutes so that way they’re easy to handle and they’re not steaming piping hot. Once you cut into these or once you break into these, you’re going to see just how tender that dough is. The cheese filling is gooey and has a little stretch to it. They’re so good and they’re ready to serve. And there you have it. The tiropaka are ready and they smell amazing. They bake up in no time. And of course, like always, I say when something is this good, you want to have a double batch ready in the freezer ready to go if people stop by unexpectedly or if you want to have something ready for a party or something like that. They freeze beautifully. So before you bake them, you just assemble them like we did at the beginning, and then you put them on trays with parchment paper, freeze them until they’re frozen solid, and then you can transfer them into freezer safe bags or containers, whatever you like to store your things in. They’ll stay fresh in there for about 2 months. Then you can take them out. You don’t have to thaw them out. You can bake them fresh out of the freezer. Of course, once they’re frozen, they will take a little extra time. And you can reduce the temperature by 25 degrees so that way they don’t overbake. Now, I baked some a little bit darker and some I left a little bit lighter. It just depends how you like it. If you make them a little bit more golden, they’re going to be a little crispier on the outside, yet the inside crust is still going to be tender. That cheese is going to keep it really moist and delicious. I do like them a little bit underbaked just because the dough is a little more tender that way. I’ll leave it up to you how you’re going to make it. Let’s do the taste test. Once you let them cool just a little bit and they’re safe enough to serve, you’re gonna see that the mozzarella cheese creates that pull. I love this. They’re so delicious. Of course, you could play around with the filling ingredients. Feta is a must, but you can use your favorite cheeses that melt beautifully. White or yellow cheddar will work in here, too. If you’re in America, that’s a common cheese. Monster cheese is good. In Greece, grava is really good. So many different cheeses. You really can’t go wrong with this. I hope you guys give this recipe a try. The exact measurements are on the website, demetrizishes.com. You could head on over there to print this recipe out, make these. Don’t forget to like and subscribe and come back here for more delicious recipes that I share at least three a week. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I’ll see you all next time. Yes.