A Taste of Greece in a Bagel

In the Greek Heritage Kitchen, there are no bagels. But there are cakes and pastries laced with honey-flavored syrup and the flavor of oranges or lemons. In my mother's birthplace, the island of Samos, they also use sesame seeds in the nut mix for baklava. But all of these specialties are the desserts of feasting; they're reserved for special occasions like weddings, baptisms, name days and all celebratory holy days. There are many good reasons for this. The preparation requires a good bit of the cook's time, usually, the recipes result in very large pans of delicious baklava or karithopita or galaktoboureko, enough to feed a big gathering of friends and family,  and can you imagine how large all Greeks would be if we had dessert every day?

What the traditional cooking of Greece dictates is fresh fruit, a koulouraki (cookie) to dunk into your mid-afternoon coffee or a small bowl of thick and tangy yogurt with walnuts and a drizzle of good honey.

While all of this seems logical and makes sense to all of us, sometimes we just have to satisfy a craving for that Greek pastry that we cannot whip up in a few minutes. Here's what I do.

Greek Pastry Yogurt Honey Bagel

Toast half of a split sesame bagel until it's very crispy.

Cover it with a very thick layer of thick Greek yogurt.

Drizzle generously with honey.

Zest one lemon and distribute half or more over the honey.**

Sprinkle generously with toasted sesame seeds.*

*To toast sesame seeds, place into a non-stick pan over high heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the seeds turn a golden-brown color. 

**If you don't have a zester, peel the lemon (leaving behind as much of the bitter white pith as you can) and cut into very thin ribbons.