Mixed greens filo pie | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

FAQs

Do you layer filo pastry? ›

Unroll the filo pastry pack. Remove sheets as you need them, keeping unused sheets covered with cling film or a damp tea towel. Brush each sheet with melted butter and layer up according to the recipe. Layering several sheets of pastry will make your finished dish sturdier.

Spanakopita makes a great side dish for large holiday dinners next to lamb or lemon chicken. But it can easily stand alone as the main dish. Serve it with a big salad like Greek salad; Balela; or this Mediterranean chickpea salad, and favorite dips like Greek Tzatziki or Roasted Garlic Hummus.

It needs to be blind baked first. Press the dough into your pie plate & poke a few fork holes in the bottom. Then cover it with aluminum foil and pour pie weights or dried beans on top, to keep the pastry from rising. 375 degrees for 12 minutes.

Filo pastry

It can be frozen, but dries out very quickly and becomes harder to work with. YES if you're scrunching on top of a fish pie (like our filo-topped fish pie). NO if you're using to make parcels or samosas.

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.

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.

You can use the filo pastry from the fridge straight away, but you need to thaw the frozen filo pastry first. To do this, leave it out on the kitchen counter until it's at room temperature and pliable.

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.

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.

Unopened fresh filo pastry will usually last about two to three weeks in the fridge, check the best before date on the packaging. Frozen filo pastry will usually last about three months in the freezer.

How do you store unused filo pastry? ›

Leftover Fillo or Kataifi Pastry can be placed back in its packaging, sealed tightly and stored in the fridge for later use. Alternatively, you can also make extra portions of the meal, store in an airtight container and keep them in the freezer to be baked at another time.

Lay a damp (NOT wet) kitchen towel over the phyllo sheets while you are putting together your recipe. Make sure the towel is just slightly damp, enough to give the phyllo dough a little moisture so it doesn't dry out. Once you take a sheet off the stack, lay the towel back over the unused dough.

The tissue-thin sheets made from unleavened dough are used predominately in Greek and Middle Eastern countries. The sheets are always layered with oil or butter, which creates the crispy, flaky texture when baked.

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.