13 April, 2018
5 Easy Step Guide to Create A Greek Pastry
If you want the flexibility of creating something delicious, but you don’t know whether you want something savory or sweet. I suggest you go with this Greek-style pastry dough called Apollo Fillo.
This pastry comes wrapped in a box with pastry dough laid out in a sheet formed all rolled inside one on top of another sealed inside a bag.
Now before you get all excited and open the package as soon as you get it.
Important Advice
Don’t skip over this
YOU HAVE TO BE VERY CAREFUL!
Let me give you some fair warnings and tips you should be aware of before you even begin to work with this pastry dough.
- It dries up SUPER fast! (that being said you should always keep it covered with a towel when you are not working with it).
- It is normal if the pastry breaks apart or crumbles
- You need to use MANY layers before putting in your filling
Knowing these quick facts about the pastry dough should let you know that assembling it is the very last thing you need to do.
Different Fillings
There are many different combinations you could create!
So let’s talk about the types of filling you can create to fill this pastry dough.
ANYTHING!!
That’s right you could use something sweet or something savory.
To give you some ideas that would make a delicious combination are:
- Ham and cheese
- Strawberries and bananas
- Chicken and cheese
- Apples and bananas
- Guava and cheese
For this recipe, I used spinach and cheese. You could get super creative and mix any two or three ingredients that you want and I’m sure it will come out delicious.
Let me know what combinations you come up with so I can try them too.
First Step
Today I decided to make a sofrito with spinach and cheese.
First I made a sofrito of onions and garlic with some herbs and spices. I put a little bit of oil in a pot and cooked the onions and garlic for about 10 minutes until they were really brown and caramelized.
Now, this is extra, but I just got a little bit inspired because I had a little bit of leftover of buttermilk so I decided just to pour what I had left to give it some extra flavors.
This step isn’t required, but if you have some leftover buttermilk what the heck! Throw it in for some more flavor.
The more flavor the better! (in my opinion)
Second Step
Once they were at my desired liking I put in the spinach. So you know that you may have a big bag of spinach, but once you heat it up and cook it for a bit it reduces to nothing. So for this experiment, I used 3 entire bags of spinach –it may seem like a lot, but it was just the right measurement.
I put in one bag at a time until they were reducing. Once they reduced and were fully cooked I added the cheese.
Now if you want the best results for this recipe I recommend using feta cheese. Like always me not having my kitchen fully stock as I pleased. I decided to use parmesan cheese.
It will still come out delicious! So it doesn’t matter what type of cheese you use because it’s still going to come out good.
Once the cheese was melted and everything was all mixed around and ready I separated the pan from the heat and start getting my deep sheet tray ready.
Third Step
Firstly I melted some butter in the microwave so I could be able to spread it around.
I grabbed my kitchen brush and dipped it in the butter and just lightly brushed all the edges and everywhere in my sheet pan just to give it a nice coat of butter.
Fourth Step
Then I grabbed one sheet of the Apollo Fillo and laid it flat across the sheet pan as nicely as possible. I add some more butter all around the pastry sheet. After that, I folded the edges, added a little bit of butter on the folded edges the added another layer of the pastry dough.
You keep on repeating this process.
You want to have a good amount of layers to before you put your filling inside. I recommend at least 6-8 layers just to be on the safe side. But if you want less dough, by all means, use anywhere from 4-6.
Once you have your layers ready comes for the filling. You grab a nice chunk and of whatever you created ( I used spinach and cheese) and you make a nice thick evenly spread layer.
Once you have done that you add another couple layers of the pastry dough and once again you add some more of you filling.
Once you add the final layer of filling you want to just add a few more layers of the pastry dough to cover it.
One last step you could do but is not required is to add some extra cheese at the top so it could be extra cheesier.
Final Step
Once you finished setting up everything you stick it in the oven for 30-45 minutes or until the desired brownness.
Once you take it out you should let it cool down or put it in the fridge for a little bit. You should do this because it is way easier to cut it when it has hardened a little bit because if you don’t everything could break apart and make a mess when you would like one whole connected piece.
Once all is set and done cut yourself a nice chunky piece of your delicious creation and start eating.
Tell me what filling did you create and how did it come out.