Phyllo Pastry Money Bag Filled with Orange Blossom Pastry Cream

Phyllo dough. The word phyllo is the Greek word for leaf or sheet; this explains why this particular dough is called phyllo dough. Phyllo dough is a very thin sheet of dough usually used by piling a few sheets of dough with melted butter brushed in-between the layers of sheets. The alternate layers of butter and phyllo dough is what makes the baked pastry its distinctive thin flaky layers. Phyllo pastry is a popular pastry used in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines.  

Making phyllo dough from scratch is quite intimidating for most people. In fact, most home cooks and bakers, even food establishments use store-bought phyllo dough. There is nothing wrong with that because to tell you frankly, rolling phyllo dough as thin as possible is an art that involves technique and plenty of time which makes store-bought phyllo dough a very convenient commodity.

I have, for a number of times, contemplated on making phyllo dough from scratch, but time and time again, I have pushed that idea aside. Too scared perhaps... Last month's Daring Bakers' Challenge was to make phyllo dough from scratch and utilize it to make the Greek and Turkish classic, baklava. When I read the challenge last month, I was so enthused to join, but for varies of reasons I wasn't able to participate.



shots of how I made my phyllo pastry money bag



Fortunately, I managed to find time in the kitchen again, so my baking cap was on for phyllo dough project. I scrapped the idea of making baklava with my phyllo dough because I am not really a fan of baklava, too sweet for my liking. So instead I decided to use my phyllo dough to make parcels or what I would like to call money bags! What's in the money bag? I thought long and hard for my filling of choice, and ended up with a simple pastry cream because I think the phyllo dough is yummy enough already that it doesn't need a complex filling to be devoured. Although to give my pastry cream a taste of Greece, I infused the pastry cream with a nice fragrance of orange blossom water.

My experience with the phyllo dough was pleasant. It was a bit tricky when I rolled out my first phyllo dough, but managed to get the hang of it. I'm not too sure though if I rolled it out thin enough because the end result didn't look like the phyllo pastry you would get if you used store-bought phyllo dough. The taste however is more superior to store-bought phyllo dough. So will I start making phyllo dough from scratch after this phyllo dough project? 50/50. Making the phyllo dough is time consuming, so using store-bought phyllo dough is really convenient. Maybe if I have a lot of time to spare, then I'll make it from scratch.

I shared my orange blossom filled phyllo pastry money bags with a couple of friends, and they absolutely loved it! I loved it too!

Components used for this dessert treat:

• Phyllo Dough
• Pastry Cream Infused with Orange Blossom Water

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte