The Balkans aren’t known for their pastries, and most things on offer, well….. they just haven’t really been worth writing about. I’ve had to put with all manner of subsitutes….baklavas, biscuits of all kinds, shortbreads, cakes, homemade chocolates and even, in total desperation a brodwn sludgy thing from Tirana (yes, I can feel your sympathy from here).

The weird brown sludgy thing

Macaroon from Tirana

Sweet rice cakes – really yummy

Chocolate with hazelnut and Turkish delight

Home-made Macedonian sour cherry tart – the closest to a real pastry

A really good biscuit, but not a pastry

A frozen cake thing I purchased out of desperation

Although some of these were pretty damned good (the little homemade chocolates filled with hazelnut and Turkish delight were particularly nice), they are not the same as chowing down on a good pastry. So, dear readers, you can imagine my delight when I discovered that Greece does really good pastries! Not only that, every town we’ve come through so far has had at least one pastry shop, each one stocked with  a dizzying array of sweet pastry goodness!

I’m now sitting in a hotel room, and it’s -7 degrees outside, and I’ve found these two little lovelies to keep me company. The first is a regional speciality called Flogeres, and it’s a pastry stuffed with cream. I couldn’t resist the second, It looked so cute!

After note – the Flogeres was really good. A shoe pastry around a not too sweet cream filling, all soaked in a honey syrup. Simple, delicious and completely decadent. The second one wasn’t bad, but I should probably have stopped at one! Now I feel slightly nauseous…… I am going to have to work very hard over the next two works to rebuild my pastry tolerance…..