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Filo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Filo (disambiguation).
Filo
Baklava, made with filo pastry
TypeDough
Place of originAncient Greece, Central Asia or Ottoman Empire
Main ingredientsFlour, water, oil

Filo, phyllo or yufka is a very thin unleavened dough used for making pastries such as baklava and börek in Turkish and Balkan cuisines. Filo-based pastries are made by layering many sheets of filo brushed with oil or butter; the pastry is then baked.

Name and etymology

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The name filo or phyllo comes from Greek φύλλο 'thin sheet' lit. 'leaf'.[1][2] The Turkish name is yufka, from Old Turkish yuvka 'thin, weak'.[3]

History

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Origin

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Several food historians attribute the origin of filo to the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, who developed traditions of thin, layered flatbreads called yufka during the medieval period to suit their nomadic lifestyle, while its paper-thin form is likely to have evolved later in the palace kitchens of Ottoman Istanbul.[2][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Charles Perry argues that nomadic Turkic peoples had an “obsessive interest” in making layered bread, possibly in emulation of the thick oven breads of city people.[2] Grain-based foods played a large part of their diet, and since they were nomads, a type of bread that could be rolled out and cooked rapidly on a portable griddle was more practical.[4][6] In 1433, the French pilgrim Bertrandon de la Brocquière (1400-1459) encountered Turcoman nomads in the mountains of southern Turkey, who offered him fresh filo with yogurt, cheese, and grapes.[4] He remarked on the speed of their preparation, writing that "they make two of their cakes sooner than a waferman can make one wafer".[4]

According to Marti Sousanis, this bread was called yufka, the term modern Turkish uses for a thin sheet of dough.[2][5] The 11th-century Turkic dictionary Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, compiled by Mahmud Kashgari, records the term yuvgha, an archaic form of yufka, defining it as “pleated or folded bread”.[2] It is mentioned on several occasions, including one preparation in which the dough was folded and fried in butter, and a variety of dough (yalaci yuvga) described as “so fragile that it crumbled at the touch”.[2][4]

Perry observes that these layered breads survive among the Turkic peoples.[9] In Uzbekistan, a cake known as yupga is made by frying a thin sheet of dough on both sides, layering minced meat and onions in it, covering the filling with a raw sheet of dough, turning it over to fry the raw side and then repeating the process to build up a cake that is ten or more layers thick.[9] A similar dish is made in Tatarstan called yoka, consisting of ten to twelve thin sheets of dough that are fried, buttered, and stacked before being cut into wedges in pie-fashion and served with tea.[9]

Sousanis suggests that yufkas did not evolve into filo until after the Turks entered the Near East in the 10th century and came in contact with the advanced cookery of Persian courts, who introduced an early form of puff pastry that involved laminating and buttering the dough, rolling it thin, and filling it with almonds.[5]

Others claim it may be derived from the Greeks.[10] Homer's Odyssey, written around 800 BC, mentions thin breads sweetened with walnuts and honey.[10] In the fifth century BC, Philoxenos states in his poem "Dinner" that, in the final drinking course of a meal, hosts would prepare and serve cheesecake made with milk and honey that was baked into a pie.[11]

Ottoman period

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With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, many argue that paper-thin pastry associated with modern filo was invented in the Ottoman kitchens of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.[2][8][5][7] According to Mark McWilliams, flatbreads and sheets of dough underwent a transformation in the Ottoman kitchens, where chefs constantly refined techniques for rolling and stretching dough into silky translucent sheets of filo.[8] Sousanis and Gil Marks similarly argue that Ottoman pastry chefs perfected a method for stretching the traditional yufka into extreme thinness, using it to produce an array of baked goods, such as baklava and börek.[5][7] Baklava appears to be the first dish made of filo.[5]

Darra Goldstein notes that filo is traditionally rolled using a long, thin rolling pin known in Turkish as an oklava.[4] In the 19th century, Ottoman pastry chefs developed a faster method of rolling out walnut-sized balls of pastries into large circles, in which they rolled a dozen of starch-dusted layers simultaneously.[4] Rolling filo was widely practiced among rural Turks, according to a Turkish cookbook written in 1900 by the Ottoman army officer Mahmud Nedim, who advised unmarried officers that if they could not roll out pastry themselves they should ask one of the soldiers, “most of whom know how to make yufka”.[4]

Popularization

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The Turks introduced paper-thin dough throughout the Ottoman Empire, including the Balkans, where it became known as phyllo (“leaf” in Greek) and fila in Arabic.[7] Following the Ottoman conquest of Hungary under Suleiman the Great in the 16th century, Hungarian sources began referring to a pastry known as rétes, the first recorded name for strudel, whose development has been influenced by the concept of yufka.[5][7] This dough became integrated in many local pastry traditions of Europe, as well as its Asian and African colonies.[5]

Beginning in the 1960s, Greek immigrants began to popularize hand-made filo in parts of the United States.[7] With the invention of a practical filo machine in 1971, commercial filo dough was suddenly available frozen in American supermarkets, making it accessible to everyone.[7]

Preparation

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Preparation of custard bougatsa in an Athens cafe

Filo dough is made with flour, water and a small amount of oil.[12] Homemade filo takes time and skill, requiring progressive rolling and stretching to a single thin and very large sheet. A very big table is used, preferably with a marble top. If the dough is stretched by hand, a long, thin rolling pin is used, with continual flouring between layers to prevent the sheets from sticking to one another.[13] In modern times, mechanical rollers are also used. Prior to World War I, households in Istanbul typically had two filo makers to prepare razor thin sheets for baklava, and the relatively thicker sheets used for börek. Fresh and frozen versions are prepared for commercial markets.[13]

Use

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When using filo to make pastries, the thin layers are made by first rolling out the sheets of dough to the final thickness, then brushing them with oil, or melted butter for some desserts, and stacking them. This contrasts with puff pastry and croissant doughs, where the layers are stacked into a thick layer of dough, then folded and rolled out multiple times to produce a laminated dough containing thin layers of dough and fat.[citation needed]

Filo can be used in many ways: layered, folded, rolled, or ruffled, with various fillings.

List of filo-based pastries

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  • Baklava – dessert made with layers of filo, chopped nuts, and syrup or honey.
  • Banitsa – A Bulgarian dish consisting of eggs, cheese and filo baked in the oven.
  • Börek – A savory filo pie.
  • Bougatsa – A type of Greek breakfast pastry.
  • Bülbül yuvası – A Middle eastern dessert with pistachios and syrup.
  • Bundevara – A Serbian sweet pie filled with pumpkin.
  • Flia – An Albanian dish consisting of multiple crêpe-like layers brushed with cream and served with sour cream.
  • Galaktoboureko – A dessert consisting of filo and muhallebi.
  • Gibanica – A Balkan dish made from filo, white cheese, and eggs.
  • Pastizz – A savory pastry from Malta filled with ricotta or mushy peas.
  • Savory spinach pie – A Balkans' spinach pie.
  • Tiropita – A Greek dish similar to Börek, filled with a cheese-egg mixture.
  • Zelnik – A savory pie from the Balkans.
  • Jabukovača – Bosnian pastry made of filo dough stuffed with apples.
  • Pastilla - Moroccan pie made of thin Warqa dough stuffed with either chicken, seafood or lamb.[14]
  • Warbat - Jordanian and Syrian dessert consisting of layers of dough and semolina custard.

Comparison to similar pastries

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There are several similar foods similar to filo that are frequently confused with filo:[15][16]

  • Maghrebi malsouka (AKA warqa or brik sheets): Malsouka thicker than filo and is made by cooking a semolina-based dough on a hot pan.[16][17][18][19]
  • Turkish yufka: Yufka is an unleavened bread cooked on a saj, thicker than filo sheets, and may sometimes differ in ingredients.[20][21][22]
  • Güllaç wafers: Güllaç wafers are made by pouring a starch-based wafer of a hot saj.[23][24]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "filo". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Perry, Charles (as CP) (1999). "Filo". In Davidson, Alan (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 299.
  3. ^ [1] Nişanyan Dictionary "yufka"
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Goldstein, Darra (2015). The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 256.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Sousanis, Marti (1983). The Art of Filo Cookbook: International Entrées, Appetizers & Desserts Wrapped in Flaky Pastry. Berkeley: Aris Books. pp. 13–14.
  6. ^ a b Mack, Glenn Randall; Surina, Asele (2005). Food Culture in Russia and Central Asia. Greenwood Press. p. 92.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Marks, Gil (2010). Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. John Wiley & Sons.
  8. ^ a b c McWilliams, Mark (1983). The Art of Filo Cookbook: International Entrées, Appetizers & Desserts Wrapped in Flaky Pastry. Berkeley: Aris Books. pp. 13–14.
  9. ^ a b c d Perry, Charles. "The Taste for Layered Bread among the Nomadic Turks and the Central Asian Origins of Baklava", in A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (ed. Sami Zubaida, Richard Tapper), 1994. ISBN 1-86064-603-4, pages 87-93
  10. ^ a b Mayer, Caroline E. "Phyllo Facts". Washington Post. 1989. Archived.
  11. ^ Hoffman, Susanna. The Olive and the Caper. Workman Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 9781563058486
  12. ^ Marks, Gil (2008). Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780544187504.
  13. ^ a b Helou, Anissa (2015). Sweet Middle East: Classic Recipes, from Baklava to Fig Ice Cream. Chronicle Books. p. 73. ISBN 9781452130620.
  14. ^ Karadsheh, Suzy (2022-03-04). "Best Pastilla (Skillet Chicken Pie)". The Mediterranean Dish. Retrieved 2025-02-22.
  15. ^ a b Davidson, Alan (2014). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press. p. 307. ISBN 978-0-19-967733-7. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  16. ^ a b "Introducing brik, the Tunisian pastry you've probably eaten but never made". SBS Food. 13 July 2021. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  17. ^ Marks, Gil (17 November 2010). Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. HMH. pp. 280–282, 1883–1888. ISBN 978-0-544-18631-6. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
  18. ^ "Chef Fehmi cooks malsouka, a Tunisian-style of crepe". Wicked Local. 2011.
  19. ^ Yotam, Ottolenghi (May 9, 2017). "The Challenge of Perfect Phyllo". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  20. ^ Eckhardt, Robyn; Hagerman, David (2017). Istanbul and Beyond: Exploring the Diverse Cuisines of Turkey. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-544-44431-7. Retrieved 5 January 2026.
  21. ^ Ballinger, Geoffrey. "Yufka, Turkey's All-Star Pastry Sheets". Culinary Backstreets. Retrieved 5 January 2026.
  22. ^ Sivrioglu, Somer; Dale, David (3 December 2019). Anatolia: Adventures in Turkish eating. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-76087-306-6. Retrieved 5 January 2026.
  23. ^ Isin, Mary [in Turkish] (8 January 2013). "Güllaç". Sherbet and Spice: The Complete Story of Turkish Sweets and Desserts. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 170–177. ISBN 978-1-84885-898-5. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  24. ^ Isin, Priscilla Mary (25 August 2011). "Gullac". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  25. ^ "قصة صناعة أول «لفة جلاش يوناني» بالمنصورة في محل عمره 90 عاما" [The story of making the first "Greek phyllo pastry roll" in Mansoura in a 90-year-old shop]. El Watan News (in Arabic). 17 July 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2026.

Bibliography

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  • The dictionary definition of filo at Wiktionary
  • Media related to Phyllo at Wikimedia Commons
  • Phyllo dough at the Wikibooks Cookbook subproject
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