Phyllo With Fresh Cheese and Mint
- 1 1/2 cups fresh mizithra cheese or whole-milk ricotta
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Generous pinch of cinnamon
- 1/2 pound phyllo, defrosted and at room temperature
- 6 ounces sweet unsalted butter, melted and clarified
- 1/2 cup honey
- In a large bowl, combine the cheese, egg, mint, sugar and cinnamon.
- Unroll the leaves of phyllo and slice the stack in half lengthwise.
- Put the two piles of pastry leaves together into a single stack.
- Lift one leaf of the phyllo off the stack, place it on a work surface, and brush it lightly with the melted butter.
- Top with a second leaf of phyllo, brush the top lightly with butter, and fold the two leaves together lengthwise, forming a strip 2 to 3 inches wide.
- Place a tablespoon of the cheese filling at one end of the strip, then lift a corner of the strip over the filling until the point of the corner meets the opposite edge of the strip, making a diagonal fold at the bottom of the strip and a triangular enclosure for the filling.
- Continue folding the strip with the filling from corner to side as if you were folding a flag, until you reach the end of the strip.
- Place the filled triangle, seam side down, on a baking sheet and continue making filled pastries until all the filling and phyllo are used.
- There should be a little of the butter left.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Brush the tops of the pastries with the remaining butter and sprinkle them with a little water.
- Place them in the oven and bake about 15 minutes, until the pastry is golden.
- Warm the honey in a saucepan while the pastries are baking.
- Allow the pastries to cool about 10 minutes, transfer them to a serving platter, drizzle them with honey, and serve while still warm.
mizithra cheese, egg, mint leaves, sugar, generous, phyllo, sweet unsalted butter, honey
Taken from cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/7494 (may not work)