Guides

A Guide to Phyllo Dough

Author: Mary DiSomma

Flaky, buttery, crispy, delicious, phyllo is a staple of Greek, Turkish, and Middle Eastern cuisines. We all love phyllo dough… but unfortunately, it’s not the most forgiving ingredient. If it’s frozen too long, it’ll break, and it dries out super quickly. It’s just sensitive—what can I say?

A Guide to Phyllo Dough

Cook Time: 0 minutes0 min

Ingredients

The crunchy, chewy texture you get when you layer sheets of phyllo is well worth the effort. Here’s all my best advice on how to work with phyllo dough so you get the perfect results every time.

Phyllo is unleavened dough made mostly of flour, water, and a little oil. It is stretched or rolled into paper-thin, translucent sheets. Melted butter or oil is brushed in between each layer to create the light and airy pastry. You can find it in the freezer section of your grocery store.

Is phyllo the same as puff pastry dough? No. Puff pastry dough originates from France and is made from flour, water, and a solid block of butter that is folded and rolled repeatedly into the dough to create hundreds of ultra-thin alternating layers of dough and butter. So it's a much heavier and richer pastry dough

Instructions

Defrosting: I can’t emphasize this enough: You DO NOT want to rush defrosting phyllo dough. No quick trip in the microwave. No shortcuts. When you make a recipe with phyllo dough, you need to think ahead! Pull the frozen package of dough out of the freezer the night before you want to use it. Put it in the refrigerator overnight—phyllo dough takes about 8 hours to thaw. After that, leave it out on your countertop at room temperature for another hour until the sheets are completely pliable. Only then is your dough properly defrosted.

Preparing: Phyllo dough dries out super fast. 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. Plastic wrap can also work, but I personally think the damp towel works the best.

Butter or Oiling: To get that flaky effect, you need to brush some sort of fat between each layer of dough. Usually I use unsalted butter, which gives the finished product a beautiful golden color. For those who don’t want to use dairy, you can substitute extra-virgin olive oil for the butter. Just make sure you’re doing one or the other—you will not achieve that delicious, flaky texture without the extra fat!

Leftovers: Do not refreeze thawed phyllo dough. Sorry to say, it just gets too dry. So, decide how much dough to thaw, or make sure you have the right amount of filling to use it up!