Trigona Panoramatos – Filled filo pastry triangles

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 pack of filo dough or Yufka dough sheets
• 200 g butter
• 350 g sugar
• 250 ml water
• Lemon juice, a few drops
• 600 ml milk
• 1 vanilla pod(s)
• 100 g sugar
• 50 g flour
• 50 g cornstarch
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp cognac, optional
• 220 ml cream

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 4 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 6 hours

a specialty from Thessaloniki

First, boil the sugar syrup, which you will later dip the hot filo pastry triangles into while the syrup has cooled. To do this, boil the sugar, water, and a few drops of lemon juice for at least 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and let cool. For the vanilla cream filling, first heat 450 ml of milk with the scraped vanilla pod in a saucepan. Meanwhile, mix the remaining milk (150 ml) with the flour, cornstarch, egg yolk, sugar, and cognac. As soon as the milk is hot, remove the pan from the heat immediately. Remove the vanilla pod and stir in the flour, sugar, and milk mixture. Bring everything back to a boil over low heat until the mixture thickens, whisking vigorously with a whisk. Pour the vanilla cream into a bowl and immediately cover the cream with cling film to prevent a skin from forming. Let the cream cool at room temperature for about 45 minutes, then refrigerate for about 3 hours. When the cream is cold and firm, whip it again and carefully fold in the whipped cream. Return the filling to the fridge until the triangles are ready to serve. To make the triangles, first melt the butter. Brush each sheet of filo or yufka pastry with melted butter. Then place two sheets of pastry on top of each other. Now cut strips of dough about 10 cm wide and 30 cm long. Fold each strip from the bottom into a triangle. At the end, fold this triangle in half along the long side so that one large triangle becomes two small triangles, which can be unfolded into nozzles. I always put crumpled kitchen paper in these nozzles to keep them stable during baking. Bake all the nozzles on a baking tray lined with baking paper at around 160°C – 170°C for around 25 – 30 minutes, until they are nice and crispy and light brown-gold. Dip the still-hot(!) triangles directly into the cold(!) sugar syrup. This step is important because otherwise the triangles would become soft if the triangles and syrup were at the same temperature. Let the finished triangles cool and then fill them with the vanilla cream immediately before eating. The triangles can be stored wonderfully at room temperature for several days, but should only be filled with the vanilla cream shortly before eating, otherwise they will become soft. These ‘Triangles from Panorama’ are a specialty from Thessaloniki. You can also get them in Athens, but they are nothing compared to the original. When I tried them for the first time in a pastry shop in Thessaloniki, I immediately fell in love and had to try to make them myself. Here is a recipe that is extremely close to the original and is adored by the whole family.