Almond Pastry Triangles - Trigona
Almond pastry triangles - Trigona are a delicious holiday Greek dessert flavored with vanilla and lemon, and baked until crispy perfection.
Servings 55 pieces
Calories 147kcal
Equipment
- Rimmed baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Medium pot
- Food processor or a mortar and pestle
- Food grade brush
Ingredients
- 3.5 cups blanched almonds 500 gr
- 2¼ cups cane sugar 500 gr
- 1 cup water
- ⅔ cup coarse semolina
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1 vanilla bean pod
- 2 eggs
- 16 oz thin phyllo pastry One packet of phyllo #4, 14" x 18"
- 1 cup butter melted
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Ground the almonds in a food processor or with a mortar and pestle. Avoid grinding them too much. Go for medium-small pieces.
- Place the sugar and 1 cup of water in a large pot over medium heat. Stir for sugar to melt.
- Add the ground almonds and stir.
- When the mixture starts to boil add the semolina, juice from the lemon and vanilla beans seeds. Stir well and remove from heat.
- Add the eggs, one at a time while stirring well. The filling is ready. Set aside and prepare the phyllo.
- Heat the oven to 180°C / 350°F
- Divide and cut the phyllo roll into five equal pieces.
- Unfold only one of the rolls and keep the rest under a damp towel to keep them moist. Open up the roll and keep the phyllo sheets stacked on top of each other.Start with the one on top.
- Brush some melted butter on all the phyllo surface.
- Place a heaped tablespoon of the almond filling approximately 2.5 inches (6 cm) in from the edge, centered.
- Very gently lift the upper left corner and fold down diagonally, creating an isosceles triangle shape. Some extra phyllo will hang outside the shape. It will be folded with the next step.
- Hold the triangle gently and fold up this time up, diagonally. Repeat the same sequence to fold the rest of the triangle.Place finished triangles on a parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
- Brush a tiny amount of butter on top of each triangle to keep them moist while you are folding the rest.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 180°C / 350°F, or until triangles are light golden.
- Sprinkle powdered sugar all over triangles. Enjoy!
Notes
- Phyllo comes in a range of thicknesses. Buy by weight (one 1 lb / 450 g package), not by sheet count — counts vary between brands and even between packages of the same brand.
- Unbaked triangles freeze beautifully for three months. Freeze them flat on a tray, then bag them, and bake straight from frozen with an extra five minutes.
- Dust with powdered sugar just before serving or packing, not before storing.
- You can substitute the vanilla bean pod with one teaspoon of vanilla extract.
- I prefer using fresh juice from a real lemon. Bottled lemon juice is pasteurized. The process involves quick heating and cooling, which changes the flavor.
- Substitute regular semolina flour for coarse semolina.
- The perfect shape is an isosceles triangle, a triangle with two equal sides.
- Check the post for step-by-step images on how to fold them into perfectly shaped isosceles triangles.
Nutrition
Calories: 147kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.002g | Cholesterol: 6mg | Sodium: 83mg | Potassium: 69mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 157IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1mg