Phyllo Dough (FROM SCRATCH)
Some would argue that phyllo (filo) dough is one of the hardest doughs to make. There’s a joke amongst chefs that if you ask them how to make it, they’d tell you to go to the supermarket to the freezer section.
But what if it isn’t the hardest dough to make and you can make it right at home?
Well, you’d get to brag that you can make what many people consider to be one of the hardest doughs to make! (You’ll find out that it isn’t!)
Whenever I make something, I’m always interested in knowing the history of where it came from and how it developed into the thing we know today.
Phyllo (Filo) dough is an unleavened dough that is popular in many countries, mainly Mediterranean and Middle Eastern. It is the dough used to make the famous baklava!
It can be used for sweet or savory dishes, and has the appearance of puff pastry somewhat but it’s crispier and does not puff up.
True phyllo dough was probably first made in Greece in 3rd century BCE, but Syria made the first baklava from bread dough around the 8th century BCE. This Syrian dessert spread throughout the region, becoming particularly popular in Turkey where it was then called ‘yufka’.
There is an ongoing discussion on who made phyllo dough first: was it the Greeks or the Persians or the Turks, or the Ancient Egyptians? History has them all muddled, and the timelines intertwine with one another. Food historians agree that it was during the Byzantine time period.
So regardless of who exactly did it first, we do know that throughout history Mediterranean and Middle Eastern inventions were always introduced to one another and intertwined and played off of each other.
The process for making phyllo dough stayed remarkably consistent until 1946 when the first phyllo dough stretching machines were made. Then in 1970, these machines were further honed for mass production. Which brings us to today, where we can just simply buy phyllo dough from the supermarket!
Ingredients:
Phyllo dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
5 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 tsp white wine (white grape) vinegar
¾ cups warm water
Starch mixture:
½ cup cornstarch
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
Directions:
In a bowl, add flour, salt, olive oil, vinegar, and warm water.
Combine until it forms a dough.
Knead for 5-10 minutes, until soft and firm.
Cover in a plastic wrap and leave it to rest for an hour.
In the meantime, prepare the starch mixture by combining cornstarch and flour in a bowl.
After the dough rests, divide into 20 g balls and cover the measured balls to prevent from drying.
In a sieve, sift the starch mixture on the surface to prevent the dough sheets from sticking to one another.
Lay the 20 g dough and cover it with the starch mixture.
Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough as much as possible.
Flatten out 6-7 balls of dough, layer it on top of one another, and use a rolling pin to roll it even flatter.
Make sure to dust each dough with a good layer of starch to avoid sticking.
Repeat this process until all dough is flattened and rolled as thin as possible – the phyllo should be so thin, you could see a reflection of your hand behind it.
Store dough by placing it in a parchment paper and securing it in a ziplock and freeze for later use.
