Filo Pastry!!

[CoffeePot]

I was always scared of using filo but eventually I was wanting a pie so much I decided to try it. I used it in place of ordinary pastry in a chicken, ham & veg pie. I used three sheets on the base, and three on top. The pie was made in a fairly large, deep dish pie plate. It was just about the easiest thing to make I have ever done. Just put a sheet of filo in the dish, brush with melted butter, slap next sheet on top, rinse and repeat until you have used as much (or little) filo as you want.

I used cooked chicken, ham & veg - leftover meat and pre-cooked veg, and mixed it with a tin of Campbells condensed chicken soup. Dolloped it into the pie and put the lid on - which was another three sheets (brush the top of the last one with melted butter to get a good colour). Trim off the excess and bake half an hour.

I served us half the pie each, with a large helping of sprouts (we adore them). The whole dinner was 48g CHO each!! I didn't bother serving any spuds because quite frankly I didn't see the need! I appreciate that's a lot for one meal, but it's waaay better than shortcrust and oh I do love a pie!

Next time though, I shall have one third of the pie and two vegetable dishes - that'll bring it down to about 35g for the whole meal.

 

[Cleo]

Sounds delicious coffee pot! Will have to try that sometime !

 

[CoffeePot]

Today I made little hobo type parcels (like the bundles on the end of the stick in the old images) using 4" square sheets of filo (3 small pieces per bundle) stuffed with a mix of grated strong cheddar, grated parmesan and smoked paprika bound with an egg. I made 8 bundles which came out at 8g CHO per nice sized bundle 🙂

They are delicious and very filling!

 

[Poppie]

I am a lover of Filo pastry too and have made Filo pastry sausage rolls for the first time. They are delicious and lovely and crispy. I made them with good quality sausage meat with a high meat content so not too high on the carb front.

 

[CoffeePot]

I must do that! I love sausage rolls Wouldn't take much filo at all. Should work out very carb cheap 🙂

 

[Poppie]

I used 3 sheets per batch of sausage rolls, pastry brushing with melted butter between each sheet with a final brushing on the tops before baking. My husband says he prefers these to the normal pastry roll. Happy Baking. You can use filo for the mince pies as well although I haven't actually tried those.

 

[CoffeePot]

I did Mary Berry's Mincemeat Streusel today (recipe on the BBC Good Food site) and used 3 sheets of filo for the base instead of sweet shortcrust pastry, and then substituted ground almond for the flour in the topping (although I did add in 25g of flour). You have to grate the topping, so I froze it first. Mary Berry says cook for 25 minutes at 200C, but I think probably 20 would have been better and I'll do that next time.

It's a tray bake, and freezes well in portions.

It's delicious, but carby because of the mincemeat. Next Christmas I'll make my own mincemeat I think; it'll be easier to control the carbs in it.