Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie)

[sheherazahde]

I just made this. There are a lot of recipes out there for Spanakopita. I came up with this one myself.

Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie)
Ingredients2 med Onions, chopped

Comments

[a_boleyn]

The recipe sounds delicious and your instructions are clear and precise. I prefer to stack 2 buttered sheets on top of each other and cut them into 3 or 4 strips depending on the size in order to make the triangles. The use of fresh dill is a great idea.

[sheherazahde]

Thank you.

I was really struggling with the phyllo last night. I was lucky if I could get a whole sheet without shredding it. Folding was just easier.

[a_boleyn]

Sounds like you may have got an old batch of phyllo. Maybe something that was thawed and refrozen. Some brands may be better than others as well, I suspect.

I made galaktoboureko earlier this week and didn't have any problems though I only used up half the package of phyllo. I hope the rest of it is ok as I think I'll do a torte version of the spanakopita with the rest of the phyllo. I was going to do baklava but there are too many sweets in my house right now. :) This way I can bake them spinach pie, cut and freeze it away.

http://a-boleyn.livejournal.com/145469.html

[sheherazahde]

Yeah, sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's not.

I'll need to look into galaktoboureko.

The thing I like about the Spanakopitakia is that it is in single servings already.

[dunpeald]

What's "the phyllo dough" and how can I cook it?

[janewilliams20]

Filo pastry. The Jusrol version is pretty good - as a general rule, life is too short to make your own.
The best way to cook it is to make it into spinach and cheese pie (see above) :) but however you do it, you'll want either a moist filling, or brushing it with oil, or both, and to use several layers, as it's incredibly thin and dries out easily.

[a_boleyn]

If you have a sweet tooth, use the phyllo for baklava or the galaktoboureko (semolina custard filled) rolls I made last week.

http://a-boleyn.livejournal.com/145469.html

Phyllo Dough

[sheherazahde]

"Phyllo, filo, or fillo dough (from Greek: φύλλο filo 'leaf') are paper-thin sheets of unleavened flour dough used for making pastries in Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisine."

The sheets are tissue paper thin and can be tricky to work with. I can't imagine trying to make it myself. Luckily it is available in most grocery stores in the U.S. in the frozen pastry section.

If you compare it to pie crust you can see that pie crust gets it's flaky texture by rolling bits of shortening into flat layers in the flour. Phyllo is more structured, first they make tissue paper thin sheets of flour, then they brush each sheet with oil or butter and stack them. Or rather the cook has to brush each sheet with butter or oil and stack them. Both are baked to set the floured layers.

I wouldn't recommend using a moist filling because it would make the phyllo soggy.

If you can't get phyllo you can try using puff pastry dough instead.

Bonus Fact: Strudel is a German adaptation of Phyllo.