Tyropitakia and Kreatopitakia - Greek Individual Cheese Pies and Meat Pies

The best best best kourou dough pies in all the land - Τυροπιτάκια και Κρεατοπιτάκια

Published originally on my blog on 6 June 2011

I like to snack. No, I love to snack. I'd probably say that there are many times when I prefer it to regular sitting-at-the-table-and-eating-out-of-a-plate kind of thing. Anyone with me on this?

Of course when most people hear the word snack, their minds immediately jump to unhealthy food. Packaged, processed foods like potato chips and cheese puffs. That's not the kind of snacks I'm talking about even though just between you and me, I can't say no to these Greek potato chips with oregano or these chips that I found here in Holland, ever.

A bag of fresh baby carrots, baby roma tomatoes or mini cucumbers, various fruits like cherries and grapes, homemade sandwiches, kritharokouloures and nuts have always been my go-to snacks but nothing, absolutely nothing, beats good homemade Greek pies.

Greek pies come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and they are the quintessence of Greek food. They can have a number of different fillings and the dough can be made with various ingredients and in different ways thus giving each pie a distinctive texture and taste.

Meat, cheese, greens, olives; these are the preferred pie fillings. The main ingredient is usually mixed with herbs like dried oregano, mint, fresh dill or parsley and the amount of filling is always subject to personal preference. The dough that is most used for pies is phyllo but us Greeks also love puff pastry as well as kourou, which is a type of short crust pastry.

Feta cheese is the most popular ingredient for filling any kind of pie and I have to admit, it is one of my personal favorites. Cheese pie or tyropita is sold in every bakery across Greece and it's only rival is another classic pie, spanakopita (spinach pie).

There are as many recipes for pies as there are Greek cooks. Everyone has their own recipe that they swear by and this is mine. Well, my grandmother's to be exact but I don't think she'll mind me sharing it with you. These individual cheese pies (tyropitakia) and meat pies (kreatopitakia) are the taste of home for me. I literally grew up on these.

The melt-in-your-mouth dough is made with Greek yoghurt and a generous amount of butter and once baked in the oven, it becomes puffy, flaky and crispy on the edges. The filling of the cheese pie is the glorious Greek feta which is combined with just one egg that allows the tangy, creamy flavor of the cheese to shine through, whereas the filling of the meat pies is lean minced beef that is sautéed in a skillet with onions and finished off with a good sprinkling of chopped fresh dill.

Eaten while sitting in front of the computer, trying to work, write a post or getting lost in pinning inspirations on Pinterest, munched while watching Roland Garros on tv (I'm a huge Nadal fan by the way), nibbled while riding the train back home from work or shared among fellow protesters/indignados in every large city in Greece, these pies are the portable dream snack.

Tyropitakia & Kreatopitakia - Greek Individual Cheese Pies & Meat Pies

I like making my individual pies rather substantial. I like a lot of filling. Feel free to make them smaller if you want.

The dough for these pies is a version of the Greek kourou dough, made with yoghurt and butter which is the best version in my opinion. There are other versions that contain margarine, or olive oil (like this one) and are made with or without yoghurt.