I was craving some flaky spanakopita the other day and decided to test my hand at baking it myself at home. Adam’s Baba (grandmother) makes an amazing Macedonian version called Zelnik so naturally, she was the first person I called. These little spinach pies ended up turning out amazing even though I sort of freestyled some of the measurements and combined Baba’s recipe with a couple of others I found. I mean, you can never have too much cheese, right!?
INGREDIENTS:
Serving: 24 Spanakopita Bites
-Spanakopita Filling-
Olive oil
1 Medium Sweet Onion chopped finely
6 CUPS of Fresh Spinach chopped roughly
3 Springs of Green Onions, sliced into thin pieces
2 CUPS of Italian flat parsley chopped finely
2 Cups of Goat and Sheep Feta
1 CUP of freshly Grated Halloumi Cheese
2 Eggs beaten lightly
Salt and Pepper
-Phyllo Cups-
1 (454 Grams) Packet of Phyllo Sheets*
3/4 CUPS of Melted Unsalted Butter
1 Egg beaten lightly
*Phyllo Sheets - Make sure that the phyllo dough is completely thawed. It is super fragile so if it is not well thawed out it will break easily. In general, be extra gentle when handling each layer of phyllo because it is so thin it will tear easily. You have to work a little fast because the dough drys out quickly. I first cut the phyllo layers into rough 4” squares using a scissor and stacked them to keep the air off them as I worked. You can also keep them under a slightly damp dishtowel. Work with one muffin pan at a time.
DIRECTIONS:
Butter your muffin trays making sure to coat the bottom of each cup and the sides
In a pan add in olive oil and finely chopped onion and saute until translucent.
In a large bowl add the sauteed onion with finely chopped parsley, spinach, green onion, eggs, crumbled feta, and Halloumi. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and combine thoroughly till well mixed. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and pull out your muffin trays. It’s time to create your pastry cups.
Add one 4” phyllo square to each buttered muffin cup mould on your tray pressing each sheet into the moulds and allowing the corners to point up. Little tears may occur -don’t worry to much about this! Just make sure on the next layer to cover the tear with some phyllo. Using a pastry brush, brush each phyllo sheet with butter before adding another 4” phyllo square on top. Do this until you have cups that are 5-6 layers thick.
Once complete, fill each cup with spinach mixture and fold over phyllo corners back towards the middle to create a cover. If they have died out, try brushing them with butter to help moisten them. There will be some flaking, don’t worry so much about it.
Mix the last beaten egg with remaining butter and brush the top of each muffin mould with the mixture to help keep the phyllo sheet corners together before placing muffin tins in the oven and baking for 35 to 40 minutes or until the top is golden
Once ready, allow muffin trays to cool for 10 minutes before trying to transfer cups onto a serving plate or cooling rack.
Enjoy!
If you like this recipe or have any comments/questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below!
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