Online Special: See the video story here
Baking with phyllo
If you ever get the chance to visit a Middle Eastern home, you will be welcomed with warmth, respect and hospitality – and they will also ensure that you are well fed.
For dinner guests, hosts entertain with trays upon trays of appetizers and lamb, chicken and rice dishes. Desserts are reserved for special occasions, so when Middle Eastern families do make confections, they go full force – no skimping on fat or sugar. However, you won’t find many chocolate, cake or pielike desserts from the Middle East. The reigning stars of dessert are phyllo dough, nuts and honey.
Many believe that the Assyrians invented phyllo dough in the eighth century, the Turks in the Ottoman Empire then created baklava and the Greeks perfected the nutty dessert with an even thinner pastry dough. No matter who was the inventor, the wealthy mainly enjoyed phyllo, as it was considered a luxury food. Fortunately, today phyllo desserts are no longer the province of only the rich.
One of my favorite desserts involving phyllo dough is mutabbak, the Palestinian relative to its nutty cousin, baklava. Mutabbak is an Arabic word that means “layered.”
What could one possibly do to improve upon traditional baklava? How about filling the phyllo dough with melted cheese instead of nuts? I think mutabbak is the only food I would want to survive on if stranded on a desert island. Layers upon layers of buttery, flaky phyllo dough surround sweet, melted cheese in the middle, then it’s doused with a lemon- or rose-water-infused sugar syrup. Add a final dusting of finely chopped pistachios for a nutty and satisfying crunch. Salivating yet?
This is a show-off kind of dessert – if you make it for company, they’ll think you’re a dessert guru. You don’t want to take lower-calorie shortcuts – the point is to enjoy a little piece of paradise on a plate.
While many people I know are intimidated by phyllo dough, mutabbak is surprisingly easy to make, especially with the help of store-bought phyllo pastry found in most supermarket frozen-food sections.
Phyllo dough is made with flour, water and a tiny bit of oil and white vinegar. Homemade phyllo takes patience, time and skill, requiring repetitive rolling and stretching to a single paper-thin and very large sheet. Thanks to modern machinery, you can now buy good-quality phyllo without all the work.
Do not fear the phyllo – it can be your best friend when treated gently. Have a damp kitchen towel handy to cover the sheets of phyllo as you work, because the delicate sheets tend to dry out if exposed to air too long.
There is one way to make this dessert a little less caloric, a snazzy trick my mother taught me. Instead of brushing melted butter or ghee between every phyllo sheet, brush between every two sheets. This way you save some stealthy calories but don’t sacrifice the flavor.
See Shaheen cooking mutabbak with her mother in the video guide here.
Blanche Shaheen is a food blogger and journalist who lives in Los Altos. She’s writing a Middle Eastern cookbook that shares heirloom recipes, cooking tips and family stories. Visit her blog at feastinthemiddleeast.com.
Mutabbak (Phyllo Dessert with Sweet, Melted Cheese)
• 1 package phyllo dough – most packages contain 24 sheets. If frozen, defrost in refrigerator for several hours or overnight
• 2 1/2 sticks melted butter or 3/4 cup ghee
• 1 1/2 pounds queso blanco, or Mexican farmers’ cheese (substitute sweet mozzarella or ricotta cheese, but consistency will vary)
Sugar syrup:
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon rose water (optional)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pistachios for garnish (substitute any kind of nut)
Cut queso blanco into large pieces and place in bowl or container. Cover with water and place in refrigerator overnight to remove excess salt from cheese.
Day two, drain cheese and pat dry with paper towels. Place cheese in food processor and grind until it reaches consistency of cottage cheese. Set aside.
Spread phyllo dough out on baking sheet and cover with damp kitchen towel. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, using sieve, take out white froth that floats to top. This will prevent butter from burning when baked. Substitute ghee/clarified butter to skip this step. Let butter cool slightly.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Generously butter baking sheet and gently put two layers of phyllo dough on it. Using pastry brush, brush melted butter over every two phyllo layers (or between every layer if you want it super rich). Repeat six more times until you have 12 sheets of buttered phyllo.
Take crumbled cheese and spread atop phyllo layers.
Repeat process of layering rest of phyllo, making sure to brush last layer with butter or ghee as well.
Once all layers are assembled, score mutabbak with knife into either squares or diamonds. Bake 30 minutes, or until nicely browned on top.
In the meantime, combine sugar and water in saucepan on medium-high heat. Once it starts to boil, lower heat a bit and stir until sugar is dissolved and it starts to get syrupy, approximately 10 minutes. Let syrup cool, add lemon and/or rose water.
Once mutabbak is done baking, pour syrup over it immediately and garnish with nuts. Serve warm.
Dessert Recipes with Bill & Sheila
______________________________________________________________________
If you require a high quality printout of this article, just click on the printer symbol next to ’Share and enjoy’, and we will do the rest. This site is hosted by (click on the graphic for more information)
Return from phyllo to Home Page
If you want to increase your site popularity and gain thousands of visitors – check out these sites THEY ARE FREE. Spanishchef more than doubled its ‘New Visitors’ last month simply by signing up to these sites:
Follow spanishchef.net on TWITTER
