Melopita (Honey Cheesecake) from Sifnos

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Melopita is a traditional Greek Honey Cheesecake coming from Sifnos Island, in the Cyclades. It is a type of cheesecake made with mizithra cheese, which is a fresh, soft, and creamy cheese similar to ricotta, but with a tangier flavor.

This Cheesecake  could easily satisfy the needs of any person for a simple, delicious dessert that requires only basic ingredients.

The cheese used is fresh, unsalted anthotyros or myzithra, which is similar to ricotta and it is sweetened with Greek citrus honey.

I prefer using myzithra (mee-ZEE-thrah) from Crete, which is made with sheep and goat milk and has a richer flavour from anthotyros made from cow’s milk.

To flavour it I used some orange zest, orange flavoured vanillin, and citrus honey, which gives it an irresistible orange flavour.

Myzithra or anthotyros is a low fat cheese but rich in flavour and the orange zest adds a welcome zing.

This is a very versatile recipe, so if you want to make a more modern approach you can make it into a tart.

To make it into a tart, you can follow my recipe for Fig and Peach Anthotyro Cheese Tart.

Trust me, this is a dessert people won’t forget about!

ORIGIN OF CHEESECAKE

When someone hears the name “Cheesecake” what comes to their mind is the New York style cheesecake.

However, the first cheesecake was made by the Ancient Greeks. It was given to the athletes to provide them with energy.

 It was also a type of wedding cake which was made by the bride.

Athenaeus (2nd century AD) mentions that Callimachus (3rd century BC) used to have a work by “Aegimius” that described the art of making cheesecakes (πλακουντοπουκόν σύγγραμμα) plakountoboukon syggramma.

The recipe itself was pretty simple: pound the cheese until it is smooth mix it in a brass pan with honey and spring wheat flour, heat the cheesecake “in one mass”, allow to cool, then serve.

An easy Dessert fit for Breakfast or Brunch

I love that this dessert is easy to make and isn’t overly sweet. In fact it would even make an ideal healthy, breakfast or brunch dessert.

In my video I used a hand mixer to whisk the ingredients and a food processor to make it creamier.

This is a very old recipe, so back then they didn’t need an electric mixer or a food processor.

So, you can easily make it using just a fork to crush the cheese and then a spoon or a baloon whisk to mix in the remaining ingredients.

TIPS FOR MAKING THIS DESSERT

• This dessert has the tendency to stick to the pan, so make sure you grease the sides of your cake tin well with butter and sprinkle some semolina (or flour) on top.
• This cheese cake is moist and dense.  It is a flat cake, so don’t add more mixture to make it higher.    The name itself implies that it is flat as the Greek word “pita” means flat.   
• You can substitute orange zest with any other citrus zest you prefer.   

Kopiaste and Kali Orexi!

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