Greek phyllo pastry dough is available in packages of prepared sheets in your supermarket freezer section. Phyllo pastry has a delicate texture; it is rolled extremely thin. Phyllo is convenient to store, and the frozen dough offers uniformity that is difficult to duplicate with homemade pastry. You can easily adapt a favorite recipe for folded and filled turnovers with fruit, meat or vegetable fillings. Before you begin working with the phyllo, have everything else your recipe calls for ready.
Step 1
Thaw the phyllo dough in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight. Leave it in the original closed plastic packaging as it thaws. Set the unopened package on the counter before use until it reaches room temperature, up to 2 hours.
Step 2
Prepare your filling of choice and allow it to cool. Fillings for phyllo should not be runny. If you are using a vegetable filling, use firm, dry portions of vegetables. Use thickened fruit fillings, such as pie filling. Baked phyllo should be crisp and flaky. Watery filling results in a pasty, soft finished pastry.
Step 3
Open the package of phyllo and unroll the layers of dough as one piece onto a clean, dry surface. Carefully lift one sheet of phyllo from the stack and place it in your work area. Quickly brush it with melted butter, place another sheet of phyllo over it and butter the top sheet. Immediately cover the remaining phyllo with plastic wrap or waxed paper and a clean, damp towel to keep the dough moist and soft.
Step 4
Use a sharp knife to cut the two stacked, buttered sheets of phyllo dough as if they were one. Cut the dough into even strips the full length of the sheet about 3 to 4 inches wide.
Step 5
Place 1 tbsp. of filling about one inch from the edge of one end of each strip. Working quickly, fold one corner of the phyllo strip up over the filling, bringing it to meet the opposite side edge of the strip so it forms a triangle over the filling. Then fold the filling and pastry to cover the open edge. Fold again towards the other side edge, and repeat the folding until you reach the end of the pastry strip. You should have a folded and filled triangular packet with layers of phyllo wrapped around the filling. Repeat for each strip.
Step 6
Brush the outside of each pastry with melted butter and place on a buttered baking sheet.
Step 7
Butter, cut, fill and fold the remaining phyllo, keeping the sheets you are not working with covered and moist.
Step 8
Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes, or until the phyllo is browned.
Tips and Warnings
- Always brush melted butter between each layer of phyllo. Add cheese to chopped spinach or broccoli for a gooey vegetable filling. Use prepared fruit pie filling to make quick fruity turnovers. Reroll unused sheets of phyllo and keep them in a zip bag. Refreeze them for up to 3 weeks, or keep them in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Phyllo is fragile and it may tear as you lift it from the stack. Because you are working with multiple layers of the dough, simply arrange the torn layers in place and continue working.
Things You'll Need
- Phyllo pastry dough
- Plastic wrap
- Dishtowel
- Melted butter
- Pastry brush
- Knife
- Filling of choice
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