107Trigona Panoramatos

Method

Traditional Thessaloniki pastry shop style. Pipe the cream into the syruped cones just before eating so the pastry stays crisp.

You will need

• saucepan
• whisk
• pastry brush
• piping bag and nozzle
• baking tray
• wire cooling rack

1. Prepare the syrup by combining the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a small saucepan, bring to the boil, simmer gently for 5 minutes, then leave to cool completely. 7 min Ready when: clear, slightly thickened cool syrup
2. For the custard, whisk the egg yolks, cornflour, and sugar in a bowl with 50 ml of the cold milk until smooth. 4 min Ready when: smooth lump-free slurry
3. Heat the remaining milk in a pot until steaming, whisk half into the yolk mixture, pour everything back into the pot, and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until very thick. 6 min Ready when: thick glossy boiling custard
4. Remove the custard from the heat, whisk in the 30 g butter, press clingfilm directly onto the surface, and chill in the fridge until completely cold. 35 min Ready when: firm chilled pastry cream
5. Preheat a conventional oven to 170°C (340°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 10 min · 170°C / 340°F Ready when: oven ready
6. Lay out two filo sheets brushed with melted butter between layers, cut lengthwise into 8 cm wide strips, place a small crumpled ball of baking parchment at the base of each strip to create a pocket, and fold repeatedly into triangular cones. 20 min Ready when: plump hollow filo triangles
7. Arrange the triangles on the tray, brush liberally with clarified butter, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until deeply golden and crisp. 32 min · 170°C / 340°F Ready when: deeply bronzed and crisp throughout
8. Immediately immerse the hot baked cones in the cold syrup for 30 seconds, lift out with tongs, drain on a wire rack, and let cool, then carefully extract the parchment balls. 5 min Ready when: glistening hollow pastry pockets
9. Beat the cold custard briefly to loosen, transfer into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle, and pipe generously into each crisp cone right before serving. 8 min Ready when: overfilled cream pastries

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Make ahead and storing

The syruped pastry cones can be baked and syruped up to 12 hours ahead; keep dry at room temperature.

Filled pastries should be eaten within 4 hours; unfilled cones keep at room temperature for 2 days.

Substitutions

• custard powder or fine wheat starch for cornflour. Gives an authentic Thessaloniki confectionery shop flavour and texture.

Common mistakes

• Piping cream into warm pastry cones. The heat melts the pastry cream, turning the crispy filo soggy instantly.
• Dipping cold cones into warm syrup. The pastry will absorb excess liquid without staying crisp; either cones must be hot and syrup cold, or vice versa.

Regional variants

• Trigona me krema santiyi (filled with a lighter Diplomat cream mixture of custard and whipped cream)

About the dish

Trigona Panoramatos are hollow, syrup-soaked filo pastry triangles baked crisp, then filled with a rich, silky vanilla custard cream immediately before serving. Originating in Panorama, a hillside suburb overlooking Thessaloniki, they became famous across northern Greece during the mid-twentieth century through local pastry shops. Unlike most Greek syrupy sweets, the crisp filo cones are baked with parchment stuffing to keep them hollow, then soaked in warm syrup, allowing the contrast between crunchy syrup-laden pastry and cool cream.

Found in Macedonia. Cooked for everyday, name day, sunday lunch.

Cousins elsewhere

• sfogliatella (Italian). Both pastries rely on crispy baked multi-layered dough cones filled after baking with a rich cream.
• warbat (Levantine). Warbat is a syrup-soaked filo triangle, though in Arabic tradition the cream filling is baked inside the pastry rather than piped cold.

Nutrition per serving (estimate)

720 kcal · protein 11.6 g · fat 29.6 g (saturated 16.2 g) · carbohydrate 103.9 g (sugars 73.2 g) · fibre 1.4 g · sodium 302 mg

An estimate (summed from ingredient estimates) that varies with the exact ingredients. It is not dietary advice.

Written fresh by Epikouria editors from general culinary tradition. Recipe by the Epikouria editors. Following the confectionery techniques of Panorama pastry shops in Thessaloniki..