Cinnamon & Pistachio Souffra

Ingredients | Serves 8

1 packet filo pastry, room temp

½ cup unsalted butter, melted  

1 tbsp cinnamon

½ cup pistachios, blitzed into a rough crumb

Custard

4 large eggs

1 cup sugar 

1 tsp vanilla

1 ½ cup whole milk

½ cup cream 

Pinch salt 


Serve with a dusting of icing sugar and cinnamon. 

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 170C and line a springform cake tin with baking paper

  2. Combine cinnamon and melted butter

  3. Lay out one sheet of filo on a clean surface and brush with butter, dust with some cinnamon and scatter some pistachio evenly over the sheet. 

  4. Roughly gather together the slides of the filo. This is going to look rough but creates a nice flower effect. Place in the centre of the cake tin. 

  5. With the remaining sheets of filo, one by one, brush with the melted butter, dust with cinnamon and scatter with a little pistachio. Now you want to scrunch the length ends together (in a concertina design) pinch along the bottom and then swirl it around the centre sheet of pastry. Keep doing this until you’ve run out of sheets and all the sheets are wrapped around each other, quite snug. Now brush the remaining butter over the top of the filo so that the ends will go golden. 

  6. Place in the centre of the oven for about 25 minutes or until it's golden in colour. Whilst the pastry is cooking make your custard.

  7. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and add the vanilla and HALF the sugar. Whisk until combined and set aside 

  8. In a saucepan add the rest of the sugar, milk, cream and salt. Give it a good stir and place on a low heat. Heat through until it just starts to simmer (keep stirring) and remove from the heat. 

  9. Slowly whisk the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture. Pour everything back into the saucepan. Return to a low heat and keep on the heat stirring until it thickens (5-10 minutes). It will be runnier than a normal custard. 

  10. Remove the custard from the heat and carefully pour all over the filo pastry (might be easier to pour the custard into a jug to do this). Place the souffra back into the oven and bake for 25 minutes until the custard looks set (it may be slightly runny in the centre but that’s fine, remove from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Remove from the springform tin and onto a cake stand. Dust with icing sugar (and more cinnamon if you like) and serve.