What Is Galaktoboureko? The Greek Custard Pie

Galaktoboureko is a Greek dessert of semolina custard baked between sheets of buttered filo and soaked in syrup. Here is its history and how it is served.

Galaktoboureko is a Greek dessert made of a thick semolina and milk custard baked between layers of buttered filo pastry, then soaked in a lemon or cinnamon scented syrup. The top is crisp and golden, the middle soft and creamy. It is usually cut into squares and served at room temperature or slightly warm.

The name

The word combines the Greek gala, milk, with boureki, a word for filled pastry that comes from the Turkish börek. The dessert belongs to the shared Greek and Ottoman kitchen, and similar milk pies are made across the eastern Mediterranean.

How it is made

Milk is heated with sugar and fine semolina, then thickened with eggs and butter until it coats a spoon. Sheets of filo are brushed with butter and layered in a tray, the custard poured in, and more filo laid on top. After baking, cool syrup is poured over the hot pie so it absorbs without going soggy. The contrast of temperatures is the old trick.

How to eat it

Galaktoboureko is best on the day it is baked, when the top still crackles. Some prefer it warm, others chilled; both are traditional. A piece pairs naturally with a medium Greek coffee.

Crisp filo, warm custard, a little syrup at the edge.

A taste of Greek Alexandria

Alexandria was home to one of the largest Greek communities outside Greece for much of the twentieth century, and its patisseries carried Greek home sweets like this one into the city's café culture.

Order galaktoboureko from Délices

Call us to order galaktoboureko or plan it for a gathering: +20 3 486 1432. We're at 46 Saad Zaghloul Street, Raml Station, open daily 8 AM – 1 AM.