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Phyllo
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Phyllo, filo, or fillo (Greek f????, fıllo, "leaf" or "sheet") (Turkish Yufka) dough or pastry is paper-thin sheets of raw, unleavened flour dough used for making pastries in Turkish, Greek and Middle Eastern Cookery .
Phyllo dough is made with flour, water, and a small amount of oil. It is almost always used in multiple layers separated by melted butter. When these are baked or deep-fried, they become crispy and the result resembles puff pastry, though the method is very different, and they are generally not substituted for one another.
Phyllo is used in many of the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire.
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Encyclopedia
Phyllo, filo, or fillo (Greek f????, fıllo, "leaf" or "sheet") (Turkish Yufka) dough or pastry is paper-thin sheets of raw, unleavened flour dough used for making pastries in Turkish, Greek and Middle Eastern Cookery .
Phyllo dough is made with flour, water, and a small amount of oil. It is almost always used in multiple layers separated by melted butter. When these are baked or deep-fried, they become crispy and the result resembles puff pastry, though the method is very different, and they are generally not substituted for one another.
Phyllo is used in many of the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire. The individual sheets are layered with butter and other ingredients, then baked to make flaky pies and pastries, including baklava, börek, gözleme, spanakopita, tyropita and bstilla. Rolled out dough layers (made of starch) are also used for making güllaç, a Turkish dessert mostly eaten in the holy month of Ramadan. Phyllo layers together with walnuts and rose water are placed one by one in warm milk. A similar Egyptian dessert is called Umm Ali.
In Turkish cuisine pastries prepared with phyllo are called börek, in Egyptian cuisine they are called gollash, in Albanian cuisine they are called byrek, in Austrian-German-Hungarian cuisine the dough is called Blätterteig and pastries made from phyllo are called strudel. In Bosnia, the word burek is used only for the pastries with meat and other kinds are called pita. In Serbian language phyllo is called kore (plural) while the pastries have various names, depending on mode of preparation. In Bulgaria the dough is called kori za banitsa (pl.) and the generic name for the pastries is banitsa, although there are special names for some specific kinds.
An early, thick form of phyllo appears to be of Central Asian Turkic origin. As early as the 11th century, the Diwan Lughat al-Turk, a dictionary of Turkic dialects by Mahmud Kashgari recorded pleated/folded bread as one meaning of the word yuvgha, which is related to the word yufka. The idea of stretching raw dough into paper-thin sheets is a later development, probably developed in the kitchens of the Topkapi Palace.
Homemade phyllo takes time and skill. It requires progressive rolling and stretching of the dough to a single, thin and very big sheet, with continual flouring of its surface, which tends to break apart. A very big table and a long roller are used. Once finished, the phyllo is floured, folded, then used as desired. Most phyllo is made with wheat flour and water, but some dessert recipes call for egg yolks in addition.
Machines for producing filo pastry were perfected in 1971. Nowadays phyllo is produced mostly by machine. Phyllo for domestic use is widely available from supermarkets, fresh or frozen.
Phyllo can be used in many ways: layered, folded, rolled, or ruffled, with various fillings. Some common varieties are:
- with apples: Apfelstrudel
- with cheese: called Peynirli börek in Turkey, Burekas in Israel, Tyropita in Greece and Cyprus, Gibanica in Serbia, standard Banitsa in Bulgaria
- with chicken: called Tavuklu börek in Turkish cuisine, Kotopita in Greek cuisine
- with vegetables: sebzeli börek (spinach, leek, eggplant, courgette etc.) in Turkish cuisine, Chortopita in Greek cuisine (Prasopita when filled with leeks)
- with meat: called Kiymali börek or Talas böregi (with diced meat and vegetables) in Turkish cuisine, Kreatopita in Greek cuisine, Burek in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and elsewhere
- with nuts and syrup: Baklava, sütlü nuriye, söbiyet, saray sarma in Turkish cuisine
- with potatoes: called Patatopita in Greek cuisine, Krompiruša in Serbia, Patatnik in Bulgarian cuisine
- with powdered sugar on top
- with spinach and feta cheese: called Ispanakli börek in Turkish cuisine, Spanakopita in Greek cuisine, Spanachnik in Bulgarian cuisine
Su böregi in Turkish cuisine consisting of boiled dough layers with cheese in between can be described as a salty version of baklava.
Some recipes also use an egg yolk glaze on top when baked, to enhance color and crispness.
In Western countries, filo is popularly used by South Asian immigrants to make samosas.
Bibliography
- Perry, Charles. "The Taste for Layered Bread among the Nomadic Turks and the Central Asian Origins of Baklava", in A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (ed. Sami Zubaida, Richard Tapper), 1994. ISBN 1-86064-603-4.
- Lambraki Mirsini, Akin Engin, Ayni Sofrada Iki Ülke, Türk ve Yunan Mutfagi, Istanbul 2003, ISBN 9754584842.
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