Bakery Counter · Custard Pie
Bougatsa Thessalonikis
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: avlxyz / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
The recipe arrived with Greek refugees who fled Asia Minor in 1922 with almost nothing — bougatsa-making was one of the few skills they managed to carry with them.
Hand-stretched, paper-thin filo is layered around a semolina custard (or, in savory versions, cheese or minced meat), baked until golden, then dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Bakeries across Thessaloniki serve it hot, sliced into squares, from early morning.
Why it's made this way: Refugees from the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe resettled heavily in and around Thessaloniki, and their bougatsa-making tradition took root so firmly that the city's bougatsa-makers formed their own guild in the years that followed.
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