So many people that I know are quite skeptical to work with phyllo pastry. Let me put your mind at ease; although it is a very delicate pastry, trust me it is not difficult at all. Once you have tried making these delicious sundried tomato, spinach, butternut and feta phyllo pies – you will be sold on working with phyllo pastry.
You will see that my pastry looks slightly charred. Well, I had a slight issue with my oven on the day and only realised this when I attempted to pop the phyllo pies in the oven. After pre-heating the oven; I realised that the bottom element conked in. My husband then placed the phyllo pies in our woodfired pizza oven. Now the thing with a woodfired pizza oven is that you can’t really control the temperature as you can with a conventional oven. It literally only took like all of 2 minutes to crisp.
The two of us only realised this once the first batch was almost completely charred. Thankfully we could remedy the situation with the second batch and kept an eye on it. Needless to say these sundried tomato, spinach, butternut and feta phyllo pies was oh so good even with slight charred bits on top.
Tips for working with Phyllo Pastry
- Phyllo pastry is quite fragile as it is so tissue-thin and therefore needs to be handled delicately.
- It is best to thaw the frozen pastry in the refrigerator in the closed package.
- First prepare all your ingredients before attempting to open the thawed pastry.
- Make sure that the surface is dry when you unroll the pastry.
- Have a two damp clean cloths at hand; the one to place the unused pastry sheets on and the other to cover it – do not leave unused pastry sheets open as it will dry out in minutes.
- Your hands should be clean and dry when working with phyllo pastry.
- Take one sheet at a time to work with. Try and work as quickly as you can.
- Use a soft silicone brush or soft-brittle pastry brush to coast the pastry sheets with melted butter or oil.
- Start by brushing the edges first and then working towards the middle.
- Don’t stress if the pastry tears slightly; it can be patched up easily with another sheet.
Sundried Tomato, Spinach, Butternut and Feta Phyllo Pies
Ingredients
- 800 g swiss chard spinach (rinsed, stems removed and chopped)
- 400 g roasted butternut (cubed)
- 100 g sundried tomatoes
- ½ cup feta cheese (cubed)
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 250 g crème fraîche
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- 8 sheets phyllo pastry
- 125 g unsalted butter (melted)
Instructions
- In a skillet, heat the oil and sauté the onions with a sprinkle of onion powder.
- Add garlic and smoked paprika and continue to sauté for a minute.
- Add the chopped spinach, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- Remove from heat and add the crème fraîche.
- Set aside to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Spray a muffin pan or mini tart pans with cooking spray.
- Brush each phyllo sheet with a thin layer of butter and stack on top of each other. Keep the unused sheets under a damp cloth.
- Cut pastry into 10 cm strips and then halving it again – depending on how big your pastry sheets are.
- Place buttered phyllo strips in the muffin casings or mini starts with pastry sligtly overlapping.
- Fill each casing with the butternut, spinach mixture, chopped sundried tomato, feta and parmesan cheese.
- You can either close the top with the overlapping pastry or just gently tuck it in the sides.
- Bake for 12 minutes until crispy and golden.
