When I was growing up, there was always a box of store-bought phyllo dough sitting in my family’s freezer. My mom kept it there for whenever the mood would strike her to make flaky, crispy, simple syrup–soaked homemade baklava fragrant with rose water and studded with pistachios—a rare treat! I would sit in the kitchen, watching her carefully unravel layer after layer of phyllo dough, placing each in a sheet pan and brushing it with butter before adding another sheet. It was a meticulous process but the satisfying crunch of biting into a square of her baklava made it seem well worth the effort.
Though my mom mainly used phyllo dough for baklava, the pastry has many excellent applications, both sweet and savory, so it’s well worth keeping in your freezer, too. The ingredient is a staple of Greek cuisine and many Middle Eastern cuisines, and it’s easy to find in the freezer section of just about any US grocery store, as well as in specialty stores. Here, we’ve gathered a list of six phyllo dough recipes, including Greek spanakopita, Armenian spinach and cheese turnovers, a spin on the Internet-darling crinkle pie, and, yes, baklava. So, grab a box or two of phyllo on your next trip to the supermarket (or pull one out of your freezer).
