Kalitsounia Kritis: Cretan Sweet Cheese Pastries

These sweet cheese pastries (say: kah-leet-SOON-yah) are a specialty of Crete, an island known for its culinary traditions. They are special favorites at holidays and celebrations. Unlike many other Greek pastries that use layered sheets of phyllo dough, the recipe for kalitsounia calls for a kneaded, rolled dough, which is wrapped around sweet myzithra cheese with a dash of cinnamon and a hint of orange. They can be baked (shown here), or fried and served sprinkled with sugar or drizzled with honey.