for the filling:
3 cups diced butternut squash (about 5mm cubes)
3 tbs uncooked bulgur wheat (bougouri)
3 tbs olive oil
2 tbs sugar
1 cup sultana raisons
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground cloves
for savoury add to the filling:
1/2 finely chopped small onion
3 tbs finely chopped fennel
for sweet add to the filling:
1 tbs ground ginger
1 tbs ground nutmeg
for the dough:
4 cups flour (all purpose (00)
1 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup warm water
1 egg and 1 tbs water mixed together for egg wash
1. The night before, prepare your sweet or savoury filling. Add ingredients together in a bowl and place in the fridge overnight, or (if you don’t want to wait) for at least 2 hours so that the bulgur wheat absorbs the liquid.
2. Preheat oven to 190C and prepare baking sheets with baking paper.
3. Prepare the dough. Mix the flour with olive oil with your fingers so that the flour absorbs the olive oil. Add the lemon juice, salt, warm water and mix together. Add more flour and/or warm water so that you can form a dough ball. Form a ball, cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let it rest for 30 minutes.
4. Roll the dough out thinly with a rolling pin on a lightly floured circle. The dough may be a bit hard, but you will eventually succeed in rolling it out – persist! With a side plate, cut out circles like in the picture above. Place about 2 tbs of filling per circle (or a bit more so long as you can close the circle). Brush egg wash on the end of half of the inside circle. Close the circle together to form a half moon shape (as in the picture above), pressing the edges tightly together. (Ensure you do this properly or the pies will break open in the oven). Let pies rest for about 15 minutes before placing into the oven.
5. Brush the top of each pie with egg wash and with a knife, poke a little hole on top of each kolokote before placing into the oven. Sprinkle some salt & pepper or sugar on top of each pie – depending on whether you make the savoury or sweet recipe.
6. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. Keep an eye on the pies and take them out when the tops are a golden brown, before they begin to burn.
Love this recipe! Tastes incredibly similar to my yia yia’s one and it felt like i was back home with her in Cyprus.
So happy to hear that. Whenever I make these I always feel like I am in the village in autumn! I imagine the squash on the side of the road!
thank you. turned out great. Everyone liked these. Even my dad said they were nearly as good as my yiayias in Cyprus more than 70 years ago!