10 Desserts You Must Try In Crete Greece
When you visit Crete you will have many delicious things to try, but there are 10 desserts you must try in Crete Greece. One thing you need to note is that the Greek desserts are super sweet, so some people might find them to be extremely sweet especially if you visit a traditional Cretan Tavernas.
This is a follow up of the previous article where we sampled 10 foods you must eat in Crete Greece, I just thought the desserts deserve a page of their own. Even though in restaurants and hotels, they will serve you the conventional deserts like chocolate cakes and lemon cake, there are some desserts that are strictly traditional Greek desserts and today we are going to focus on those.
In most small tavernas, they will serve the traditional Greek desserts.
Galaktoboureko
This is just a custard pie that is drizzled with syrup made of honey, water, sugar and cinnamon it’s usually made with butter, semolina, eggs, pastry, and cream. It is super delicious and it’s cold so it goes very well with the warm weather in the summer.
Loukoumades
Here in Crete we usually have Loukumades, in the winter because they are perfect served warm, we especially enjoy them during the annual Carnival where everyone puts on costumes and there are BBQ s on the streets and lots of loukoumades being made nice and hot and fresh.
The Carnival usually takes place 3 weeks before the Greek Orthodox Easter, each town has its own date for the celebration, the good thing about each town having its own date for carnival, you get to take part in two or three, and each town has its own theme, so its so much fun
You could end up eating one too many loukoumades because they are so yummy.
But what are they? Loukoumades are bite-size round doughnuts made of thick sweet batter, and they are deep-fried in oil and then drizzled with hot honey and garnished with either chopped walnuts or toasted sesame.
Rizogalo
This is the Greek version of rice pudding, it’s sweet, it’s creamy and its got cinnamon flavor, it’s simple but it’s delicious but again quite sweet, its usually made of rice, milk sugar, and lemon rind, and then its served sprinkled with cinnamon. Some people do change up the recipe a bit by adding raisins and adding fresh fruits when serving it.
Melopita
This is a honey pie, and it’s usually made with Mitzethira(cream cheese) eggs, Butter, flour, sugar, cinnamon and its usually served drizzled with honey, its a very delicious dessert.
Baklava
And of course baklava, this is one of the most famous Greek desserts, I guess it could be considered the king of Greek desserts because when people visit Greece, when it comes to Dessert this one is a must, its a very sweet dessert, its made of flaky pastry, nuts, butter and very sweet syrup although some people do use honey instead of syrup.
The honey version, especially in Crete, is the best because the Cretan honey is Naturally flavored with herbs due to the fact that the bees are drinking from the nectar of lavender, oregano and other herbs that are growing wildly up the Cretan mountains, if you ask me, the Cretan honey is the best.
Pasteli
You can buy Pasteli ready-made especially in the big market in Chania they sell Pasteli which is made of sesame, honey and other nuts which you can take home with you and it will keep for a while, and you can continue enjoying the taste of Crete even when your holiday is over 🙂
Feta Me Meli
Since Feta Cheese is a huge part of the Greek diet, it’s only fair that it should find its way to the Greek Dessert menu. Feta Me Meli is a very simple yet very delicious dessert, the good thing about this dessert is that unlike all the desserts that we have mentioned above, this one will not give you too much sweetness.
Basically, Feta Me Meli is just a block of feta cheese wrapped in pastry and then baked in the oven until crispy and then its drizzled with honey, the sweetness from the honey is calmed down a bit by the salt in feta and that creates a wonderful mix and the pastry ads the crusty texture that balances the creamy texture of the melted cheese, giving you a taste of the finest Greek slice of sweetness, that makes you feel like the Gods are smiling down on you 🙂 ( OK I know, I know a bit Dramatic)
Halva
A very easy and simple dessert, there is two different kinds of Halva found in Crete, one version is made with semolina, olive oil and sugar syrup with raisins, and usually garnished with toasted nuts like almonds or walnuts. The other version is nut-based and its usually made with sesame and other nuts and it’s usually made into a bar and you can purchase this version from shops and markets in Crete.
Yaurti Me Meli
This is just Yoghurt and honey, it is usually served garnished with chopped walnuts although there is a restaurant we visited here in Crete where we were served yaurty me meli topped with strawberries and drizzled with honey and garnished with walnuts, that was the best version of this dessert that I have ever tried.
Fraula Tourta
This is a rich strawberry cheesecake and it’s usually served in the summer months when the strawberries are in season, its made of rich Greek yogurt, heavy cream, fresh strawberries, sugar, butter and digestive biscuits as the base. its usually served with whipped cream and garnished with toasted almonds and fresh strawberries.
Conclusion
Greece is rich with all kinds of fresh ingredients to make the most delicious desserts, and during the season of fresh fruits there are many kinds of desserts made with fresh fruits, there are also desserts that are made as preserves to be served in the winter months, with a shot of skudia to warm up your tummy and help with digestion 🙂
Because most of the Greek desserts are super sweet, its always a good idea to accompany them with either a small glass of Sikudia(Raki) or metaxa (Brandy) or maybe a shot of Ouzo, whatever rocks your boat 🙂 one thing is for sure, when you leave Greece, you will have to put yourself on a diet because there is no way you are going to overcome the tempting powers of Greek cuisine.
Thank you so much for reading my article, please leave me a comment if you have enjoyed reading this article
Thank you for your time
Rose
