Sifnos Recipe
Melopita
Crustless honey-and-cheese pie — thyme honey, fresh mizithra, the Easter sweet of Sifnos.
Cooking time
50 minutes
Serves
8
Melopita is the honey pie of Sifnos: no pastry. Fresh unsalted mizithra or anthotyro, thyme honey, eggs, cinnamon, lemon zest. Baked until the top goes gold, then more honey and cinnamon. It is a cheese pie. It is not baklava and it is not a mainland galaktoboureko in a different pan.
Easter is when the island still cooks it — richer milk, the same week as mastelo. Tselementes published a version; the village pie is older and simpler. Some recipes add sugar or semolina. The Sifnos one does not need them.
You will not usually find it in a bakery bag next to amygdalota. It is a table sweet, a cooking-class pie, sometimes a taverna dessert in spring. The rest of the kitchen is on the Sifnos cuisine hub.
Ingredients
- •700g fresh unsalted mizithra or anthotyro, well drained
- •3 large eggs
- •120g Greek thyme honey, plus extra to finish
- •1 tsp ground cinnamon, plus extra to finish
- •Zest of 1 lemon
- •Pinch of salt
Preparation
- 1.Heat the oven to 180°C. Butter a 22–24cm round pan or clay dish.
- 2.Mash the cheese until smooth. Beat in the eggs, honey, cinnamon, lemon zest and salt.
- 3.Pour into the pan and bake 40–50 minutes, until set and golden on top.
- 4.Cool until just warm. Drizzle with more thyme honey and dust with cinnamon.
- 5.Serve in wedges. It should cut like a set custard, not a pastry pie.
Where to try it
Easter tables, and tavernas that still bake it.
Easter lunch is the honest date — ask if the kitchen is baking it that week. Village tavernas and cooking classes run it more often than a harbour dessert list. It is a wedge at the table, not a bag from the baker.
Frequently asked questions
A crustless Sifnos pie of fresh unsalted mizithra or anthotyro, thyme honey, eggs, cinnamon and lemon zest. Baked, then honey and cinnamon on top.
Yes. It is the island honey pie, especially at Easter. Other Cyclades bake honey pies; this one is cheese, honey and eggs, not pastry.
Easter if you can. Some tavernas and cooking classes make it in season. It is not a year-round bakery tray like amygdalota.
No. The island version is the filling baked in a pan or clay dish until it sets. If you are served a filo pie, that is a different sweet.
Fresh unsalted mizithra or anthotyro. Not feta, not manoura. Drain it well or the pie weeps.
Thyme honey is the Sifnos taste. Another Greek honey works; a bland supermarket blend tastes like sweet cheese, not the island pie.
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