This is a recipe from November 10, 2011. What I really wanted was to make the pies again and take photos of the assembly process. But phyllo pastry is not sold in the boondocks. Getting a box means a trip to the city and that will make the phyllo very expensive.
So, I’ll stick with I’ve got. A good recipe, a few photos of phyllo pastry, and a short explanation about what it is and how it is used.
Phyllo (also spelled fillo or filo) is a thin unleavened sheet of dough
Unleavened means it does not contain any rising sgent. No yeast, no baking powder or soda. The sheets are rolled and boxed, and you buy the package chilled.
To use the sheets, brush one with oil or melted butter, top with another sheet, brush the second sheet with oil or melted butter again, repeat, and so on, and so forth, until you have a stack of thin sheets. How many sheets should be in the stack depends on the recipe.
To trim the stack to fit into your baking pan, use a sharp pointed knife. It’s easy to cut phyllo but it’s also easy to tear the sheets so do it carefully.
In this recipe, I used two single-serve ramekins, which are small, so I had to cut the stacks into circles. I used a saucer that was about the size of the ramekin, placed it upside down on the stack of phyllo and cut around the saucer. You can use kitchen shears if you’re more comfortable with that.
Stacking phyllo sheets to create volume
To create sufficient volume, I had six circles of stacked phyllo, each circle consisting of six layers. That’s three circles per ramekin which means I had 18 layers of pastry on top of my filling. If you’re using a single large baking dish instead of single-serve ramekins, you might want to double the amount of phyllo pastry.
Spanakopita-inspired spinach, bacon and cream cheese pot pie
Equipment
- 2 six-inch ceramic ramekins
Ingredients
- 1 cup spinach blanched, squeezed and finely sliced (measure after slicing)
- 100 grams belly bacon
- 1 onion chopped
- 125 grams cream cheese softened to room temperature
- ¼ cup milk
- 3 extra-large eggs
- salt to taste
- pepper
- 1 pinch cayenne (optional)
- 6 sheets phyllo pastry
- ¼ cup melted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Chop the bacon. Cook in an oil-free non-stick pan until lightly browned. Add the onion and cook for another minute or until the onion bits start to soften. Turn off the heat and toss in the spinach.
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in the milk. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne. Mix in the spinach and bacon.
- Take a sheet of phyllo and lay flat. Brush with melted butter. Top with another sheet of phyllo, brush with butter, and so on, until you get to the last sheet. Don’t brush the top sheet with butter yet.
- Spoon the spinach, bacon and cheese mixture into your ramekins.
- Cut two circles from the stack of phyllo sheets to fit the top of the ramekins.
- Cover the spinach, bacon and cheese filling with the phyllo and brush the top with butter.
- Bake for about 20 or until the crust is puffy and lightly browned.
- Serve the pot pies straight from the oven. They are very, very hot though so be careful as you take your first forkful.
