flipPlakous with Honey, Fresh Cheese and Sesame
Plakous with Honey, Fresh Cheese and Sesame
Why this dish? Honey cakes like plakous accompanied the end of banquets and also served as offerings deposited in temples. In Heron's Alexandria, a city of mixed Greek and Egyptian cults, these sweets marked both scholarly celebrations and acts of piety.
A cake of thin pastry layers filled with fresh cheese and honey, scented with sesame. Tender, fragrant, frankly sweet: the note of sweetness that closes the meal or is placed as a tribute.
This one I reserve for days of joy and gestures of gratitude. I stretch the dough into sheets as thin as my machine plans drawn on papyrus, I stack them with fresh cheese, I drown it all in honey and scatter sesame like sowing stars. When a new mechanism comes to life in my hands, I carry a portion as an offering — for knowledge, too, deserves thanks to those who passed it down to us.
- •Thin sheets of wheat dough — several (layered structure)
- •Fresh ewe's cheese — as desired (filling)
- •Honey — generously (binder and sweetness)
- •Sesame seeds — a handful (flavor and crunch)
Plakous with Honey, Fresh Cheese and Sesame
A cake of thin pastry layers filled with fresh cheese and honey, scented with sesame. Tender, fragrant, frankly sweet: the note of sweetness that closes the meal or is placed as a tribute.
Why this dish? Honey cakes like plakous accompanied the end of banquets and also served as offerings deposited in temples. In Heron's Alexandria, a city of mixed Greek and Egyptian cults, these sweets marked both scholarly celebrations and acts of piety.
This one I reserve for days of joy and gestures of gratitude. I stretch the dough into sheets as thin as my machine plans drawn on papyrus, I stack them with fresh cheese, I drown it all in honey and scatter sesame like sowing stars. When a new mechanism comes to life in my hands, I carry a portion as an offering — for knowledge, too, deserves thanks to those who passed it down to us.
Ingredients (period version)
- Thin sheets of wheat dough — several (layered structure)
- Fresh ewe's cheese — as desired (filling)
- Honey — generously (binder and sweetness)
- Sesame seeds — a handful (flavor and crunch)
Ingredients
- Phyllo pastry sheets — 6 sheets (layering)
- Ricotta or fresh ewe's cheese — 250 g (filling)
- Honey — 120 g (sweetness and syrup)
- Sesame seeds — 3 tbsp (flavor)
- Mild olive oil or melted butter — for brushing (browning)
Method
- Mix the fresh cheese with 2 tbsp of honey.
- Lightly brush each phyllo sheet with oil, stack three by three in a small mold.
- Spread the sweetened cheese, cover with a second stack of oiled sheets.
- Sprinkle with sesame, bake at 180°C for 25 to 30 minutes until golden.
- On removal, drizzle with the remaining warm honey and let soak before cutting.
How it was made : Plakous was a Greek layered cake of pastry, honey and cheese, a distant ancestor of the honey pastries of the Eastern Mediterranean. It was served at symposia and featured among the food offerings placed in sanctuaries.
The contemporary twist : Cut into small diamonds and presented on a fig leaf, ancient mignardise style to close a themed dinner.
Hero of Alexandria · Charactorium
