These koulourakia are divine!

Katina Galie learned to make the traditional Greek pastries as a child alongside her maternal grandmother, Catherine Paregoris.

So it’s no surprise the New Kensington native is something of an expert when it comes to crafting koulourakia, a twisted butter cookie traditionally prepared and served during Greek Orthodox Easter festivities.

Still, it’s impressive how fast her fingers fly as she rolls a walnut-sized scoop of dough into an 8-inch rope, wraps one end over the other in a gentle loop and then twists the dough three times into a neat and even braid.

Even though there’s a strip of of blue painter’s tape on the stainless-steel worktable to guide her, you get the feeling she could probably do it just as well with her eyes shut. She’s got decades of muscle memory in those dough-loving hands, and has put them to use for various events at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Mt. Lebanon for at least 30 years.

“It’s kind of mindless,” the Upper St. Clair woman admits with a laugh as she rolls and plaits cookie after cookie on a recent Wednesday morning. “You just do it.”

In less than a half hour, 48 cookies are perfectly lined up on the parchment-lined baking tray, ready for baking. And that’s just her handiwork. Longtime congregation member Joanna Ferencz, a Castle Shannon iconographer with a shock of bright-pink hair, is just as busy filling her own trays with the twists. Retired real estate agent JoAnn Kartsonas of Mt. Lebanon, a new member of only four years, is, too.

By day’s end, Galie and more than 15 other church members will have made around 2,700 cookies for the church’s annual Philoptochos Autumn Food Fair on Oct. 4-5. And the sweet dessert is just one of more than a dozen handmade Greek specialties on the menu.

Those who attend the fair in the church’s community room on Gilkeson Road will also get to choose from nearly 650 kotopita (chicken-stuffed phyllo rolls) made and frozen by 25 volunteers in early September. There also will be trays of pastitsio and moussaka, 2,500 dolmathes (grape leaves), more than 1,000 meal-sized soutzoukakia (meatballs) and countless gyros at the fair, which runs from 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. each day.

Add homemade soups, Greek salad, assorted pastries and homemade desserts to the mix — all available to eat in or take out — and everyone is guaranteed to go home with a full belly. Proceeds benefit local charities such as Neighborhood Resilience Project, Lending Hearts and the KDKA-TV Turkey Fund.

Last year, the church netted close to $55,000 while serving nearly 4,000 people, says co-chair Elaine Sofis of Mt. Lebanon. And this being Pittsburgh, “they weren’t all Greek!”

Food has a way of bringing people together, after all. And our city loves its food festivals, (especially Greek) of which there are many.

Many of us also love a bargain, so the fair once again will include a flea market affectionately dubbed YiaYia Joan’s Treasures and Market in honor of Joan Lamprinakos, the woman who started it many years ago. Expect books, handbags, jewelry and household items like tablecloths and ceramics.

Sofis, who grew up Catholic and converted to Greek Orthodox at 22 when she married her husband, Ted, can’t remember how long Holy Cross has been holding the event, just that it’s always been one of the church’s main fundraisers.

“The community center was built in 1993, so maybe prior to that?” she says.

What’s not in doubt is that the 150 members of the Ladies Philoptochos love rolling up their collective sleeves for the event each year, always eager to help with the planning, cooking, portioning and serving. That includes a fair number of men (who are allowed to be members) along with its cadre of women.

On the same day Galie and others were rolling all those cookies, retired Bethel Park pharmacist John Popovich and his crew of three were working hard around the corner in the kitchen. Working with 25-pound bags of flour and sugar, the men are tasked with measuring out and mixing the butter-and-egg-enriched dough their counterparts would roll and twist over the course of the next six hours — six batches in all, each containing 36 cups of flour.

As chief baker, it was also Popovich’s job to keep a careful eye on each tray of cookies after they’d been brushed with egg wash and popped into the convection oven for a 15-minute bake to a golden crisp at 325 degrees.

“And you have to rotate them because one side is always hotter than the other,” he says, noting the best cookies are evenly colored. “You gotta keep things moving around.”

His wife, Stacy, likes to jokes that her husband is a “wanna-be Greek,” but Popovich says it’s really more about the fellowship.

“We have fun in the kitchen,” he says. “We like each other’s company.”

“It’s my family,” agrees fellow member and dough-maker Deno Pappas, who grew up in the parish. “And it’s very rewarding to do something [for others].”

Gretchen McKay: gmckay@post-gazette.com.