Homemade Phyllo Pastry

"Something I came across while living abroad. Many of the older generation living in the area referred to as the holy land, will use only the homemade version. I don't expect anyone to actually try it, but then again, one never knows. I personally prefer the homemade, as it has a fresher taste than commercially frozen fillo dough's, and the frozen kind can often break if opened too soon, or while warming to room temp, one became rather sticky on me. equipment needed: rolling pin, wooden dowel no less than 24 inches long and 3/4 inch diameter, large cloth, and wax paper."
 
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photo by FunCook photo by FunCook
photo by FunCook
Ready In:
30mins
Ingredients:
4
Yields:
12 sheet layers fillo
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ingredients

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directions

  • Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl and add the water with oil.
  • Stir until forms soft dough, then knead in the bowl about 10 minutes.
  • Dough will feel sticky at first, but kneading, it should develop into a dough that becomes smooth and satiny.
  • When well mixed and smooth, wrap pastry in plastic wrap and leave it to rest at room temperature about one hour.
  • If not all the dough is being used right away, wrap the unused portion and keep chilled in fridge up to a week.
  • Always bring to room temp before using.
  • Divide the pastry into 12 equal portions, shaping them into smooth balls.
  • Cover with a cloth, except the one you're working with.
  • Take a ball of dough, and shape it into a square.
  • Place it on a lightly floured surface, and roll into a 6 inch square using rolling pin.
  • Dust again with flour.
  • Take the dowel, and place on one end of the pastry, and roll neatly onto the dowel, pressing firmly as you do so.
  • Keep hands on each side of the pastry.
  • Unroll the pastry and dust the work surface and pastry with a little flour, and roll up again from opposite side as before, exerting pressure as you go.
  • Unroll carefully.
  • After second rolling, the pastry should be about 10x12 inches.
  • Using the back of your hands, place them under the pastry and stretch gently, moving hands to keep it even, working toward the edges.
  • The edges can be given a final stretch with the fingertips.
  • You should wind up with a pastry that's 14x18 inches in size.
  • Place on a cloth, cover with wax paper and fold the cloth over the top.
  • Repeat the above process with remaining dough balls, laying each on top of the previous one with wax paper between them.
  • Use soon after making as they'll go sour if you keep them too long.
  • If desired, you can roll them out more thinly.
  • Repeating the dowel rolling process more will result in a thinner square each time.
  • Phyllo can be used like a puff pastry when thicker, or it's wonderful in baklawa, lamb pastries, or many other mid eastern sweets when rolled very thin.
  • In Greece, they'll often use phyllo as a crust for certain types of pies, such as spinach.

Questions & Replies

  1. My dough was so sticky it was unusable. I added a little more flour but it didn't help. I threw it away. What probably happened?
     
  2. What temperature should it be baked?
     
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Reviews

  1. For people like me who have physical disabilities you can use your mixer to make the dough you need to start with the paddle attachment to mix, then switch to the dough hook, keep it on low for both you'll have to let it knead 5-7 min. Then you can use a Pasta roller to roll it out !! This recipe worked perfectly when done this way as well
     
  2. Beware when making phyllo pastry! Being a gullible sort of guy, when I decided to make my own phyllo pastry, I carefully followed a recipe on the 'Net. The stuff turned out like paving stones! I tried once more, thinking the problem lay in my skill - or lack thereof. Same horrible, unusable result. I then sought other phyllo pastry recipes and discovered that the recipe I had followed with such disastrous results contained three times as much flour as any other! No wonder even my Bosch Universal Plus made such rude noises in the process. So I suggest that when taking recipes from the 'Net, do check several similar to make sure the one you picked is a good'un.
     
  3. This recipe is great! I put this off for two months because I thought it was going to be hard, but it was stupid easy, now I feel ridiculous. It was a dream to handle and roll, like making a very thin pizza crust, repeatedly. I let it rest for almost two hours in our warm lanai, hoping to relax since I thought it would be difficult. Meanwhile, I double checked technique and videos and found to use flour very generously, even if it seems like too much; it will eventually absorb. I halved the recipe and used a French rolling pin. I rolled it as thin as possible (edges can be stubborn), and was about the size on the directions, it only tore twice, because I pushed it. I brushed each sheet with olive oil and layered them in pie pan with homemade apple pie filling in the middle, since I thought it would be a good test filling. One site said that it would not be as thin as commercial, and it was not, but it did not flake everywhere either, which may be better. I am not sure how to layer properly, so it may be ugly. I submitted a picture. Thank you very much.
     
  4. I will never EVER buy frozen Phyllo Pastries again. EVER! This didn't take as much time as one would think to end up with this flaky pastry dough. I used this recipe along with recipe # 340361. Together time was less the two hours including baking time and set times! EVERYONE who buys the prepared ones in the freezer section should seriously do these instead! Thank you for sharing al Amira!
     
  5. I did everything like you said except for using the dowel. I rolled the dough pieces out with the rolling pin into a large rectangles about 16" by 10" then I would stretch them the rest of the way with the back of my hands. I was surprised at how easy the whole process was. It was easy to manage and the dough was very elastic and stretched with out much effort. I can't wait to be able to use it! It is a great find for me b/c I haven't been able to find phyllo in any of the local stores. Thanks for posting this recipe alAmira! (made for PAC spring '09)
     
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Tweaks

  1. home made phyllo
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Ok. I started learning to cook at age 8. My first teacher was my grandmother, who had been born in 1917 (I was born late in everyone's life), and who taught me the basics the old fashioned way. Hence I'm happy to say I can cook anything, but still I love searching as well as sharing new ideas, while retaining the old tried and true ways with food. As for interests I've too many to list here, but will say most are in the creativity genre. What else is there to say?
 
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