I’m writing this blog post in my apartment which has been also serving as a sauna these days. I made these pastries yesterday evening when it was a 24C summer evening and I could almost bake them without an oven.

 

I like phyllo dough so much that I always want to use it for pastries. And I want to use it in different forms as well. There are a few traditional ways of using phyllo in Turkish cuisine, but I want to go beyond those.

So in this recipe, I cut big phyllo sheets in smaller rectangles and made savoury muffins with them. I just “glued” the layers with melted butter and the rest was easy.

 

The filling is quite spicy with a dash of sweetness coming from sweet potatoes. There is also a little bit of dried mint to add a refreshing flavour. I actually mostly use fresh mint for this recipe but this time I didn’t have any so instead I used dried mint. It was very good with that as well.

Using this same technique, you can make many different kinds of phyllo muffins, even sweet ones, so consider this blog post also as a guide to use phyllo in a different form. Enjoy!
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Ingredients:

Difficulty: Medium
(makes 12 muffins)

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

2 tsp vegetable oil (I used rapeseed oil), plus a little more to grease the muffin tin
1 medium onion, diced
500 gr. sweet potatoes, peeled and diced, then boiled until just tender
200 gr. green peas, boiled until just tender
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp chili flakes (add more if you like it to be really hot)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp dried mint or a handful fresh mint leaves coarsely chopped
2 tsp lemon juice
50-70 gr. butter (start with 50, add more if needed)
48 phyllo sheets, cut in 8x15cm size*

*The phyllo sheets I used were not extremely thin so 4 layers were enough. If you find extremely thin phyllo, then you may want to use 6 or maybe even more layers. Do remember that the more layers you use, the more butter you need to use as well. I bought my phyllo from Kimene market in Itäkeskus.

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1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the phyllo tin with vegetable oil.

2. In a large pan, put 2 tsp vegetable oil and heat on medium high heat. Add onion and sauté for a few minutes, until translucent.

 

 

3. Add boiled and tender mashed potatoes and green peas and continue to sauté.

 

 

4. When everything looks cooked enough, add spices, salt and mint and continue to cook for about a minute.

 

5. Add lemon juice, mix a little and take away from the heat.

 

6. Melt the butter.

7. Start glueing the phyllo layers. As seen in the photos, put 2 sheets perpendicular to each other first and then add the remaining 2 sheets diagonally to the previous ones. If you are using more than 4 sheets, you can just add them as in the first 2 layers. Brush melted butter on top of each sheet before adding the next sheet on top. Do not brush any butter on top of the final one (well, you may, but it gets too greasy and messy in the next step).

 

 

 

 

 

8. Put the glued phyllo layers on the muffin tin and press into the mold gently to take the shape.

 

 

9. Fill the “muffins” generously with the filling.

 

10. Close the muffins by folding the excess parts of the phyllo layers on top of each muffin.

 

11. Brush melted butter on the closed muffins. Bake in the oven, in medium part, for 20 minutes, or until they get golden brown. Take out of the oven when ready, let them cool in muffin tin for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool to keep their crispiness. Enjoy!