Xerotigana is a traditional sweet that can be found throughout Crete as well as on many Greek islands. Consisting of ineffably light pastry ribbons fried in oil and drizzled with sugar syrup or honey and sprinkled with sesame seeds, they are served to guests at Christmas, Easter, and other holidays, as well as at weddings.

Ingredients

• For the dough

1 kg flour
1 egg
1/3 glass milk
1/8 glass tsikoudia (raki)
1 glass of water
oil (for frying)
cinnamon

• For the syrup

2 tbsp. honey
1 glass of sugar
1 glass of water

Sesame

 

 

Preparation

Put the flour in a big bowl, add some water, the egg, milk and tsikoudia and knead until the dough becomes hard. Let it rise for 1-2 hours. Then roll out a very thin pastry sheet, cut it in stripes (2-4 cm), fold it in various shapes and fry the xerotigana in sizzling oil. See that their color turns golden and not brown. When they are ready, take them out of the pan and strain them. Then prepare the syrup (for 10-15 xerotigana) as follows:

Mix the water and sugar in a saucepan stirring continuously, and let it boil for 10-15 minutes until the syrup becomes thick. Remove from the fire, add the honey and continue stirring in order for the syrup not to stick. Then dip the xerotigana in it one by one, soak them for 1-2 minutes, take them out, put them in a large flat dish and sprinkle with some sugar, cinnamon and some sesame or chopped walnuts, if you want.

Use plenty of oil during frying because the xerotigana must be floating in it.