Trileçe
Trileçe is a popular dessert in Southeastern Europe, particularly in Albania, Serbia and Turkey and other Balkan countries. It consists of a light sponge cake soaked in a mixture of three types of milk, which gives it its name—derived from the Spanish tres leches, a dessert popular in Latin America. Trileçe tends to be lighter and less sweet than tres leches, due primarily to differences in milks used.
Origin and spread
The exact origins of trileçe are debated. However, the most likely explanation is that the popularity of Latin American soap operas in Albania led local chefs to reverse-engineer the tres leches cake, which then spread to Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina and throughout the Balkans. Another theory was the packaging of condensed milk in the 1940s showcasing recipes for tres leches. There is also the theory that Renata Casadei, an Italian chef at Piazza in Tirana, introduced it to Albania in the early 2000s after visiting a friend in the Dominican Republic.Trileçe later spread from Turkey to parts of the Arab world.
Given its cross-cultural influences, Trileçe is frequently classified as fusion cuisine.
Regional variations
The Albanian version is sometimes made literally with three types of milk: cow, goat, and water buffalo. However, more commonly in modern versions, a mixture of cow's milk and cream is used.While tres leches is typically topped with cream and fruit, the Balkan variation, trileçe, usually features a caramel or fruit sauce topping, although sometimes cream is added before the caramel.
In Istanbul, where condensed milk is less popular, some versions use cow, sheep and goat milks as the 3 milks required by the recipe.