Apple Cannoli

A few days ago, I bought filo/fillo/phyllo pastry, because it was on sale. I've always seen recipes which use filo pastry, but I thought it was an America-only product. Not so, apparently. Filo pastry is basically very thin layers of pastry, layered together with oil in between, and then baked, to produce a crunchy and flaky result. The first thing I made was Apple Cannoli, which is delicious apple filling wrapped in filo pastry. I did not make the vanilla dipping sauce, because I was lazy. It probably would have tasted great, though.

The recipe uses 3 types of apples - 2 Golden Delicious, 1 Granny Smith and 1 Fuji. I just used 4 Granny Smith apples. I also used oil spray instead of brushing the filo with melted butter, all in the name of laziness.

The filling had a slight tartness, and was very delicious (you'd expect anything with this much butter to taste great). The pastry was crunchy and flaky and yum. I can't wait to experiment more with filo pastry.

Recipe

Obtained here, modified.

Makes 48.

4 Granny Smith apple
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter
20 sheets filo dough
Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC.

2. Peel, core, and dice the apples. In a large bowl, combine the lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the apples and toss to coat.

3. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter and add the apples. Cook approximately 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until apples begin to soften. Remove from the heat and cool completely.


4. Unroll filo dough on dry work surface. Spray one sheet of filo dough with cooking spray, and stack another sheet on top. Repeat until five sheets have been stacked and sprayed. Carefully cut the filo stack in half across the width, then cut the two halves once more. Make two evenly-spaced cuts across the length of the stack for a total of 12 squares.

5. Top each square with one tablespoon of the cooled apples, spreading slightly diagonally from corner to corner. Fold opposite corners over the apples to form a tube, pressing gently to seal the top. Repeat layering and filling process with remaining filo sheets and apples until there are 48 cannoli.

6. Place pastries 5cm apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake in preheated oven for 12-14 minutes or until pastry is flaky and golden brown.

7. Take out of the oven and remove the cannoli immediately, to prevent the caramelised juices hardening and sticking to the tray. Cool and serve.