One of my favourite Christmas traditions is to make phyllo pastry appetizers. Finger foods are so popular during the holidays, and it's a lot more fun and cost-effective to make your own. I started doing this a couple of years ago and every year I get a little more creative with it. This year, I also bought some puff pastry so I'll let you know how that turns out.
This post will be dedicated to showing you what I did for my fillings. I stuck to four this year and as much as I'd like to do more, sometimes it just gets to be a little too much, especially when it comes to filling the pastry (which I won't lie, can be kind of tedious and time-consuming, but the end result is worth it, I promise).
So, let's get on with it then.
My first filling I made was my take on the traditional spinach "spanikopita" style.
I used:
1/2 pkg of frozen spinach, microwaved for about 90 sec and then the water squeezed out
3/4 pkg of cream cheese
squeeze of basil paste from Sobey's
about a tbsp chopped fresh basil
couple tbsps of freshly grated parmesan cheese
juice and zest of half a lemon (to brighten the flavours)
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(Not all of the ingredients are shown in the picture because I kind of make these up as I go along!)
And this filling turned out like this:
The next filling I made actually turned out to be something I'm going to use as a dessert. I wanted to do sort of a sweet and savoury kind of thing and it just turned out like more of a dessert flavour. It's still very good but I might serve it as a dessert instead of an appetizer.
What I used:
Goat cheese (half the pkg pictured)
1/4 pkg cream cheese
2 heaping tsp blackberry jam
zest and juice of half a lemon
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When I make these, I'm going to put a fresh blackberry in each little pastry.
The next one I made was with crab and I think it turned out really well.
I used:
1/2 pkg cream cheese
1 can of crab meat (PC brand - highly recommend)
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh chives (I just use kitchen scissors and cut these into the bowl - very easy)
juice and zest of half a lemon
1-2 tbsp fresh grated parmesan cheese
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The last one is a favourite of my family's and it's the most time consuming so I left it to last.
What I used:
2-3 cups of chopped mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 finely chopped shallots
tsp dried thyme
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1 tbsp butter
These ingredients I threw in a pan to saute and soften before I combined them with the cream cheese.
3/4 pkg cream cheese
1-2 tbsp parmesan cheese
I'm also going to but a small slice of brie cheese with each of these mushroom ones when I stuff them.
Stay tuned for part 2!
