spiral cheese pie with home made phyllo and ricotta (strifti tyropita)

i don't have a bucket list of places i want to go and things i want to see but there are some food related things i want try making again or make for the first time..phyllo pastry has been on my try again list for a long time..i'd made it in greece a couple times and once more years and years ago when i first came back to australia..i had a sense of trepidation at the thought of tackling it again though..who knows why because it wouldn't have been a big deal had it not turned out ok..bins are good for dealing with cooking disasters..

spiral cheese pie with home made phyllo and ricotta (strifti tyropita)

tea with hazel

2-3 serves

 ingredients

phyllo

500 gms plain flour
1/4 cup olive oil

2 teaspoons salt (i used murray river salt that is less salty than conventional salt)

2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons (tbs) fresh lemon juice

ricotta

1 cup milk

1/2 cup pure cream

large pinch salt 

1 tbs fresh lemon juice or cider vinegar

cheese filling

100 gms feta crumbled

50 gms grated parmesan

50 gms grated kefalotyri

ricotta (from above recipe)

1 egg

1 spring onion cut fine

1-2 tbs mint or dill cut fine

1/2 tsp pepper

extra

olive oil

sesame seeds

method

phyllo

day 1

~ place flour, salt and lemon juice in the bowl of a stand mixer and with the motor running add enough water to make a soft dough

~ knead the dough on low speed for about 5 minutes

~ remove the bowl from the stand mixer, cover the dough with a damp cloth, and rest for at least an hour

~ divide the dough into 10 pieces and knead into balls

~ rest covered for 1/2 hour

~ dust the work surface with flour and roll each piece of dough to about the size of a large bread and butter plate

~ stack the disks on top of each other between sheets of baking paper

~ place in a plastic bag, seal, and refrigerate overnight

day 2

~ liberally dust the work surface with flour and roll two of the pieces of the dough, using a long rolling pin, to large dinner plate size

~ carefully stretch the dough by hand to create transparent thin sheets being careful not to tear the dough* 

ricotta

~ place the milk, cream and salt in a saucepan and bring to the boil

~ take off the heat and add lemon juice or vinegar and stir once

~ leave to rest for a minute and then strain through muslin (i retain the whey for making bread)

cheese filling

~ mix all ingredients and refrigerate until needed

assembly

~ line a 22 cm diameter round tin with baking paper

~ brush each piece of phyllo with oil and divide the filling between the two sheets

~ gently spread the filling evenly over the surface of the phyllo

~ roll each piece into a long sausage

~ coil one sausage in the centre of the tin and, starting at the end of the first piece, place the second sausage in the tin

~ brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds

~ bake at 180 deg for about 45 minutes or until well browned

notes/comments

* the dough may tear a little, particularly on the edges, but that doesn't effect the final outcome of the pie
~ unused phyllo will keep for two to three days

~ to make a larger pie to feed extra people increase the ricotta and cheese filling proportionally 

one off the list..and no bin needed!

post publication note: i've made phyllo a couple of times since posting this recipe and i've found that if the dough is rested for an hour it doesn't necessarily need overnight resting..overnight resting is useful though for getting part of the work done ahead of time..