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

FAQs

How many layers of phyllo dough should I use? ›

Typically, phyllo dishes should have a finished thickness of 3 to 10 sheets per layer. (A one-pound box of phyllo contains about 20 sheets.) Tip: Phyllo pastries can often be very brittle when baked. We recommend using a serrated knife to cut the finished dish to prevent all of the filling from squishing out.

Phyllo dough, also known as filo dough, is a paper-thin pastry dough made by rolling together layers of dough. It bakes to produce a flaky, shatteringly crisp texture. Although the dough likely originated in Turkey, where it's known as yuf ka, the Greek name filo (“leaf”) caught on internationally.

The air circulating underneath the phyllo will prevent them from becoming soggy. Keep phyllo cups on a wire rack until ready to serve. If you've got extra phyllo to use up and are looking for another appetizer idea, check out these cute little fig and goat cheese bites!

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

To get that flaky effect, you need to brush some sort of fat between each layer of dough. Usually I use unsalted butter, which gives the finished product a beautiful golden color.

In order to get golden, individual layers, you need to brush each layer of phyllo with butter or oil. Use a pastry brush, and remember that each sheet will soak up around 1 Tbsp. of fat, so plan accordingly.

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.

Not necessarily, but butter is used traditionally and creates beautifully golden and crisp layers. If you don't want to use butter, you still need to brush the pastry with another form of fat to help your pastry cook properly.

Make ahead. Many phyllo dishes can be assembled and frozen in airtight containers prior to baking. Do not defrost prior to baking. Phyllo is extremely versatile; so don't be limited with traditional phyllo dough recipes.

The acidic properties of vinegar inhibit gluten, some will say. This theory proposes that once the water and flour are combined, gluten starts forming, causing the dough to grow tough. Adding an acid, the theory goes, stops the gluten in its tracks and rescues the crust from toughness.

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.

How do you make phyllo crispy again? ›

Whenever we re-warm ours, we flip the pieces over so that the bottom gets crispy again.

The primary difference between jam and jelly is that jam is made with fruit and jelly uses fruit juice. Preserves contain whole fruit or large pieces of fruit.

Commercial pectin helps thicken jam made with low-pectin fruits, like blackberry jam, or vegetable jelly recipes, like pepper jelly. It comes in powder or liquid form, but the former is the most common. Add powdered pectin to the fruit juice, chopped fruit, or strained purée before heating the jam mixture.

Jellies and jams do not need to go in the fridge because they have a water activity of around 0.80, and their pH is usually around 3. So they don't have enough moisture to support bacteria and are too acidic for them as well. Conclusion: Keep your jams and jellies wherever you want to.

Phyllo dough is usually found in the frozen food section, either in flat squares or in rolls. 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.

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.

This expands the space between the flour layers. Ultimately, in classic puff pastry, you want to create 729 layers of folded dough. Seems like overkill, but all of those hundreds of layers are what create pâte feuilletée's ethereally light and delicate flakiness.