Kiddipedia
By Kathy Tsaples, from her book Sweet Greek
Thiples are a traditional pastry made for all festive occasions such as Easter, weddings, christenings, birthdays, Name Days and so on. They are light, crunchy and deliciously sweet. Thiples are not traditionally made in Thessaly, where my parents come from, and I learned how to make them through my mother-in-law, Anastasia, who comes from Kalamata.
Ingredients
Pastry
16 eggs
(for the best results, they must be fresh
and organic)
approx. 2 kg special white flour
1 L sunflower oil
juice of ½ lemon
½ cup of ouzo
25 g packet of vanilla sugar
2 ½ tbsp sugar
3 cups of walnuts (to serve)
1 cup of sesame seeds, toasted (to serve)
1 tsp of cinnamon (to serve)
Syrup
2 cups of honey
½ cup of lemon juice
1 cup of water
1stick of cinnamon
2cups of sugar
Method
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon juice and ouzo.
Add the flour to form a stiff dough. It should not stick to your hands. Knead it for about 6 minutes and allow it to rest for about 30–50 minutes.
Take a piece of dough the size of your fist and, using a pasta machine, roll the dough out until it is thin. Cut your pastry into squares approximately 6 by 6 inches in size.
Heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Drop the pastry squares into the hot oil and, using a fork, roll them up to form a cylinder. Admittedly, this step does require a bit of practice. Don’t worry if they are not perfect to begin with. Drain the Thiples after frying.
Create the syrup by bringing all the syrup ingredients to a boil and simmer for about 5–10 minutes.
Dip each of the Thiples into the warm (not hot) syrup.
Serve in a beautiful platter and sprinkle with the finely chopped walnuts, sesame seeds and a little cinnamon.
