Easy Phyllo Pastry Tarts with Hot Pepper Jelly Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

Do you have to butter each layer of phyllo? ›

The magic of phyllo sheets comes in the layering. You'll brush oil or melted butter between each layer of phyllo. I'm using olive oil for this spinach pie. Oil the dish, add a sheet of phyllo, brush with oil, top with another phyllo sheet and repeat.

Phyllo cups can become soggy if you fill them with wet ingredients too far in advance, so be sure to fill them just before baking. How do you keep phyllo cups crisp? Store phyllo cups in an airtight container at room temperature to maintain their crispness.

Phyllo Dough

Phyllo (also spelled filo), which means “leaf” in Greek, is tissue-thin sheets of dough that have very little fat. Many popular Greek dishes, such as baklava and spanakopita, are made with phyllo dough. Phyllo dough can also make great edible serving cups for appetizers or desserts.

Defrost in the refrigerator to make sure those butter layers stay nice and cold, and handle the dough as little as possible. Phyllo dough is available in frozen sheets or shells. The shells do not need thawing, but the sheets must be completely thawed before using.

Tip #2: Add Butter or Oil for Flaky Phyllo Layers

For those who don't want to use dairy, you can substitute extra-virgin olive oil for the butter. Just make sure you're doing one or the other—you will not achieve that delicious, flaky texture without the extra fat!

Filo Pastry contains virtually no fat but a light brushing of melted butter, ghee or oil imparts a sheen to the baked recipe and adds to the eating qualities. Use a pastry brush and brush the sheets very lightly before using each one in the recipe. Brush the finished dish again before baking.

One package contains dozens of paper-thin sheets of phyllo. Most preparations use 5 or more of these sheets stacked together. These sheets can become gummy if too damp or brittle if too dry.

There are two key elements to promoting the extensibility necessary in the dough: adding vinegar to the dough, which weakens some of the gluten bonding, making it less elastic; and ample resting. Of course, it takes practice, just like working with any kind of dough.

To achieve a crispy and light texture with phyllo dough, make sure to brush each layer with melted butter or oil. Additionally, avoid overloading the layers with too much filling, as this can contribute to a soggy result. Bake at the recommended temperature, and keep a close eye on it to prevent over-browning.

The crescent-shaped croissant is a flaky pastry with buttery layers whereas a puff pastry is a drier composition of dough. Both use similar ingredients and preparation work.

What causes phyllo pastry to crack? ›

If phyllo thaws too quickly, or if the sheets are cold when you unfold them, they will crack along the folds or stick together at the corners. Thawed phyllo sheets will dry out quickly, especially in a hot kitchen; always keep the unfolded pastry between two dry towels while working with it.

Even better, switch your pastry from shortcrust or puff to filo. This is the lowest-fat pastry by far, with 2.9g fat per 100g. This compares with 26.2g for puff or 31.4g for shortcrust. Filo is the lowest-calorie option too, and it's easy to use.

You can use the filo pastry from the fridge straight away, but you need to thaw the frozen filo pastry first. To do this, leave it out on the kitchen counter until it's at room temperature and pliable.

Phyllo means “leaf” in Greek. The tissue-thin sheets made from unleavened dough are used predominately in Greek and Middle Eastern countries. The sheets are always layered with oil or butter, which creates the crispy, flaky texture when baked.

To bind the filo sheet together, melted butter is commonly used, but flavourless oil can be a substitue, but remember to brush each sheet liberally with butter to make it easy to shape. Practice this technique using Alyn Williams' chicken christmas cracker or Paul Ainsworth's raspberry meringue pie.

It dries out very quickly, so it is usually brushed with a fat before cooking. For the Om Ali the filo is brushed with melted butter and then put on a baking sheet and cooked in the oven until golden and crisp. The pastry is very thin and doesn't necessarily need fat to be brushed onto both sides.

The tissue-thin sheets made from unleavened dough are used predominately in Greek and Middle Eastern countries. The sheets are always layered with oil or butter, which creates the crispy, flaky texture when baked.

Don't over-butter the phyllo.

The sheets will naturally moisten one another as they are layered together, and the baklava will be too soggy if you completely brush every single sheet. (Plus, you'll likely run out of butter.) Just lightly brush each sheet — especially the edges — and you'll be good to go.