Amygdalopita - Traditional almond pie with syrup

This is a traditional syrupy dessert which can be found in various areas of Greece with more or less the same ingredients and name. In some regions instead of the famous classic Ravani or the mastic flavoured Ravani they make this pie and it is considered as a dessert for treating the guests. It is one of the easiest "oven-pan desserts" (as we call them) and normally it should be served lukewarm along with some vanilla or pistachio ice cream or even plain

Ingredients (for 6-8 people)

For the pie:
6 eggs
1 tea-cup of sugar
1 ½ tea-cup of very fine breadcrumbs
2 tea-cups of roughly chopped blanched almonds
1 ½ tsp of baking powder
a little bit of butter for greasing
a little bit of flour for dusting

For the syrup:
2 tea-cups of water
2 tea-cups of sugar
1 tea-cup of Amaretto liqueur

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Lightly grease with butter and dust with flour a medium size round oven pan (about 24-26cm).

In the bowl of a standing food processor beat, in high speed, the eggs with the sugar until you have a fluffy and white in colour mixture. Add the breadcrumbs, the almonds and the baking powder and now in low speed mix these ingredients until they blend very well with the egg mixture.

Empty the mixture into the pan and bake for about 40 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave in the pan to cool completely.

While the pie is in the oven prepare the syrup: In a saucepan put the water and the sugar on medium heat and boil for about 10 minutes. In the end add the liqueur and stir with a wooden spoon.

With a sharp knife cut the cold pie into pieces and pour over with the hot syrup making sure that it goes everywhere in the pan so the pie is well covered.

Leave for half an hour to allow the pie to absorb the syrup and serve while it is still lukewarm.