Phyllo Cup Appetizers - A Gourmet Finger Food

Ever since I discovered Phyllo sheets, have gone bonkers making so many of those finger licking food with crispy wraps - Phyllo cups with savory fillings, Baklava, Chicken rolled in phyllo, variety of Cheese wrapped in phyllo, Samosa stuffing in phyllo, Chocolate in phyllo and so on. Somehow the crispy buttery taste of phyllo goes so well with just about everything. 


Wrap anything you love (of course I meant food ingredients you silly! :)), bake for 10-15 min and you have a speciality of your own!

I made some elegant looking finger food, perfect for a cocktail party. Couldn't resist and ended up making Phyllo Cup Desserts - A Gourmet Finger Food too! When you want to serve your guests something bite size, so that they could taste a variety of  stuff without getting an overdose, this is a perfect option! It looks awesome when displayed on an elegant looking tray, just like gourmet tasting sessions! No one will guess it was so easy to make!! (Just hope my friends who were raving about all my hard-work in making these bite size delicacies are not reading this! :) ) 

You can also make these phyllo cups well in advance and store them in an air-tight container. And then just before your party starts fill them up! If you have something that has a lot of syrup or juice, fill the stuffing just before the guests arrive. You don't want your guests to mistake it to cold  steamed dimsums! :)

This is how Phyllo cups look like in a muffin tray.

You need:

Phyllo dough/ sheet ( found in any Grocery store) 

Melted butter - approx. 1 tbsp

Small muffin tray 

How to make Phyllo Cups:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
2. Place a phyllo sheet on a flat surface. Brush melted butter all over the side facing up, using a pastry brush.
3. Place the next sheet on top of this sheet. 
4. Repeat with butter application and one more sheet. So total of 3 layers of phyllo sheets with melted butter in-between, is what you are looking at. 
5. Now cut these layered  phyllo sheets into 2.5 inch x 2.5 inch squares. 
6. Place one square over another in such a way that it forms an eight end star. Ie; don't place one square on top of another, but a little dispersed so that it looks like a star/ flower and does the job of a cup once placed inside the cups of the muffin tin.
7. Lightly grease the muffin tray. Now place sheet on the cup of a  muffin tin and push the centre so that it forms a cup.
8. Now bake it for 7 min or until its golden brown. 
9. Flip the cups gently and bake for 2-3 more minutes so that the base too becomes crispy.  
10. Now they are ready to be filled with anything you fancy!

Ideas for the Filling:

• Soft brie cheese with olive
• Hummus with pine nuts or pomegranate seeds. 
• Mango Salsa – Chopped mango tossed with fine chopped red chilies, parsley, salt, lime juice and sugar. 
• Cooked shrimps/ prawns tossed with thousand island dressing
• Chopped boiled potatoes with mint chutney and a tsp of yogurt to make it into an Indian chat
• Tomato salsa
• Chopped boiled egg with chives, salt and pepper. 
• And whatever you fancy.  There are no set rules!

*Use only unsalted butter and please don't use any other spread or vegetable spread. I tried to avoid butter and instead decided to use melted vegetable spread that tastes like butter. I melted the spread in a dish and soon had a film of vegetable oil floating on water. The phyllo sheets got only water between the layers and I ended up with a sticky gooey baklava instead of the flaky layers. I had to redo to perfect it! :(

** Try using an organic phyllo dough. Keep them frozen till you are ready to make your cup cakes. These sheets thaw in minutes. Keep a moist kitchen towel handy to cover the those sheets which are in the queue.