Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Filo Pastry along with all the Filo Pastry containing recipes presented on this site, with 18 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Filo Pastry recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Filo Pastry as a major wild food ingredient.

Filo Pastry (also known as phyllo, fillo dough [from the Greek φύλλο 'leaf']) consists of paper-thin sheets of raw, unleavened flour dough. Filo pastry is made from flour, water, and a small amount of oil and is usually rolled into very thin sheets so that when it bakes it becomes very crispy. Homemade filo takes time and skill to prepare as 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. Once finished, the filo is floured, folded, then used as desired. Most filo is made with wheat flour and water, but some dessert recipes call for egg yolks in addition.

However, filo pastry is readily available as ready-made pastry rolled in layers from the chiller cabinet or freezer of your local supermarket. The delicate sheets are strengthened by using several layers together. You have to work quickly with filo pastry otherwise it dries out. It's best to keep it in the plastic wrapping or cover it with a damp cloth while you’re working with it. The layers are usually brushed with melted butter or oil to help them brown.

As a pastry filo is extremely versatile and can be fried or oven baked and cooks very quickly. The individual sheets are layered with butter and other ingredients, then baked to make flaky pies and pastries, including baklava, spanakopita, tyropita, bstilla, and börek. It can also be used for tarts and tartlets such as apple strudel or the decadent Greek dish baklava (honey and nut pastry).