Тиквеник — Print Recipe

A coiled phyllo pastry filled with sweet grated pumpkin, walnuts, cinnamon, and sugar, baked until crispy and soaked in warm syrup. A beloved Bulgarian autumn and Christmas Eve dessert.

Ingredients

500g phyllo dough
800g pumpkin or butternut squash, grated
100g walnuts, crushed
150g sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
100ml sunflower oil
200ml warm water
100g sugar for syrup
Juice of half a lemon

Instructions

1 Grate raw pumpkin on the coarse side of a box grater. Mix with sugar, crushed walnuts, and cinnamon.
2 Lay out one sheet of phyllo dough and brush with sunflower oil. Place a second sheet on top and brush again.
3 Spread a line of pumpkin filling along one edge of the phyllo sheets. Roll into a long log, keeping it loose.
4 Coil the log into a spiral in a greased baking pan. Repeat with remaining phyllo and filling, continuing the spiral.
5 Brush the top generously with oil. Bake at 180C for 35-40 minutes until golden and crispy.
6 Make a light syrup by boiling water with sugar and lemon juice for 5 minutes. Pour warm syrup over the hot pastry. Let it absorb for 30 minutes before serving.

Did You Know?

On Christmas Eve, fortune papers are sometimes hidden inside tikvenik, just like in banitsa, making dessert an exciting moment of the festive meal.