Recipe: Miniature Strawberry Phyllo Tarts and Article: The Secrets of Baking with Phyllo

THE SECRETS OF BAKING WITH PHYLLO

Phyllo is the paper-thin dough used to make traditional Greek spinach pie and sweet, honey-drenched Turkish baklava. It is so much like the dough used for strudel, that phyllo is often used for making sweet and savory versions of this Hungarian pastry, as well.

Phyllo can be used to make a host of other dishes, too, from savory hors d'oeuvres to ethereally light, crisp pie crusts, all using a minimum of fat. Pastry chefs seeking to lighten desserts made with butter-rich puff pastry now use phyllo instead for constructing Napoleons and for making tart shells. At home, you can follow their example.

Working with phyllo intimidates cooks because the sheets tear easily and dry out quickly. By following these simple rules, though, you will find that phyllo is not hard to use.

Follow package directions carefully. Defrost the frozen dough in the refrigerator, then let it come to room temperature before unwrapping the sheets you need. Reseal the rest and refreeze.

As soon as the dough is laid out, cover it with plastic and a damp towel.
Recover the unused dough immediately after removing a sheet to use.

If the dough tears, or is split, ignore it or patch it by placing a piece of dough over it. (When phyllo has not been stored properly during shipment, or in the store, sheets may stick together, then tear or split when separated. To cope with this, have ready more sheets than a recipe calls for, and you can discard those which are a problem.)

If these instructions make you hesitate, it may help you to know that I was fired the first day of my first catering job because it took me 30 minutes to carefully stack only perfect sheets of phyllo and to brush every centimeter of their surfaces with melted butter. So learn from my mistake, and don't expect perfection from the dough. Just patch up the tears and keep going.

MINIATURE STRAWBERRY PHYLLO TARTS

4 sheets phyllo dough
Cooking spray
2 teaspoons sugar
FOR THE FILLING:
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Defrost a package of phyllo dough in the refrigerator.

TO PREPARE THE TART SHELLS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place a piece of plastic wrap on the counter. Remove 4 sheets of phyllo from the package. Set them out on the plastic wrap. Immediately cover them with plastic wrap and a damp dish towel. Reseal the remaining sheets to use another time.

Place one sheet of phyllo on the work surface in front of you. Spray generously with cooking spray. Sprinkle it with some of the sugar. Lay another sheet of the phyllo over this, covering it. Again, spray the dough well, and sprinkle it with sugar. Repeat, simply spraying the top sheet.

Cut the phyllo into 16 squares, trimming away any hard edges. Gently fit each of the squares into the openings of a miniature muffin mold with 2-inch cavities, with the corners of the squares point up. Be sure the dough is snug against the bottom and sides of the tin.

Bake until the phyllo is golden and crisp, 5-7 minutes. Cool the tart shells in the muffin tins. Remove and use, or store shells 2-3 days. If necessary, repeat with the remaining squares, or discard them.

TO PREPARE THE FILLING:
Finely chop enough berries to make 1 cup. In a bowl, toss the chopped berries with the sugar and vanilla. Let stand 20 minutes to 1 hour, until the berries are moist and there is syrup in the bottom of the bowl.

TO SERVE:
Just before serving, spoon a heaping teaspoon of the sweetened berries into each tart shell. Top with a hulled whole berry, pointed end up. Serve immediately.

Each of the 16 servings contains 120 calories and 2 grams of fat
Source: Dana Jacobi for the American Institute for Cancer Research