Almost Turkish Recipes

Puff Pastry Bundle (Üçgen Milföy Börek)



























Börek is a general name for phyllo pastry filled with various things most common of which are feta cheese, ground meat, potato, and spinach. It's usually easy to find phyllo dough in Turkey since there's a yufkacı, phyllo dough store, in every neighborhood. However, if it's a Sunday or a vacation day when yufka places are closed or if it's an emergency (an unexpected guest for tea) or if you're out of Turkey where it's hard to find phyllo dough, then you have puff pastry. They're easy to handle; just follow the instructions on the package to thaw and bake them. You can fold them into squares, rectangles, or triangles. The choice is yours.

I made these puff pastry bundles for tea time and used two different stuffing: black olive and feta cheese.


























2 square sheets of puff pastry
1 egg yolk
black seeds

black olive stuffing
1/3 cup pitted black olives
1 roasted red pepper
1 small tomato, diced
1 green onion, chopped finely
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped finely
1 tsp pepper flakes (optional)

-Coarsely blend the olives and roasted red pepper in a food processor.
-Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.

feta cheese stuffing
1/2 cup feta cheese
1 tbsp fat leaf parsley, chopped finely
1 tbsp dill, chopped finely
1 tsp pepper flakes

-Smash feta with the back of a fork.
-Mix with parsley, dill, and pepper flakes.














For triangles, I divided each puff pastry sheet into 9 equal squares. I filled first 9 squares with olive stuffing and folded them into bundles. Brushed them with beaten egg yolk and put black seeds on top to tell them apart from the feta ones. I filled the other 9 squares with feta stuffing, again folded them into bundles, and brushed the tops with egg yolk.
Bake them at 400F until golden brown.

This recipe with flat leaf parsley and dill is perfect for tea time as well as breakfast, and also for Weekend Herb Blogging which was founded and is hosted by Kalyn of famous Kalyn's Kitchen.

11 comments:

  1. You're sweet, but I am hardly famous! These look amazing. I have a good friend who is Greek and occasionally she will make Tiropita for me, which I think sounds quite similar. Is there a difference in the filo dough in Greece and Turkey?

    I

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  2. Oh dear, I have no idea where there is a capital *I* hanging there in the air after my comment. Apparently I got distracted and didn't finish what I was saying.

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  3. I've never had tiropita but I know the idea is the same. As for filo dough, Greek one is sooo thin and delicate compared to the Turkish one. I cannot work with it without tearing it into pieces. In Turkey filo dough as thin as Greek one would only be used for baklava and baklava like desserts, but nothing else.

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  4. These look absolutely beautiful. I've made tiropita also, but not with this olive-tomato filling. Must try this!

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  5. Black olives and feta is one of my favorite combinations. And yours look simply lovely. I must try this!

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  6. Oh, these sound SO GOOD! I love tiropita and spanakopita, but my experiences with cooking with phyllo pastry have not been good ones. I did see Altom Brown, on the FOod Network do a bunch of stuff with puff pastry and have been wanting to try it ever since. These yummy sounding fillings will be my motivating factor!

    Willa

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  7. These look great. I have to give them a try, perhaps a second dish for my daugther´s fairy tale party. :)

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  8. Lydia, Sher, and Susan: thank you! For the filling, you can absolutely experiment with anything or use anything you want. You can put just olives or olives+feta or olive+feta+tomatoes or feta+ mashed or feta+spinach potatoes. I must say my favorite is always feta :)

    palocalvore: Greek phyllo dough is too delicate for to handle, too. That's why I like puff pastry so much; it's way easier.

    Helene: good luck with preparations!

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  9. Anonymous11:06 AM

    Just wanted to let you know that I tried these with Safeway's phyllo pastry and they worked out fine. I'd never used phyllo before and it's a bit of a pain, but doubled over, working quickly and folded carefully enough, they came out well. Great website!

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  10. Anonymous9:25 AM

    where would you buy the large milföy sheets in turkey please

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    Replies
    1. They should be sold at every grocery store

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