Because the dough doesn’t need to rest in the refrigerator, this basic gingerbread cookie recipe may be made quickly and easily. When it comes to cutting and rolling out forms, I’m terrible. In this recipe, the oil helps to make the dough less sticky. If desired, add frosting and candy for decoration.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 20 sheets |
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
- 5 teaspoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ¾ cup warm water (110 degrees F (43 degrees C))
- 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Place 2 cups flour in a mixing bowl and make a well in the center; drizzle in olive oil and add salt. Pour in warm water and white wine vinegar, then mix until dough just comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, using just enough flour to keep it from sticking to the work surface or your hands, 2 or 3 minutes. Continue to knead until dough is supple and elastic, about 5 more minutes. Wrap dough ball in plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature, 1 to 2 hours.
- Use a kitchen scale to divide dough into twenty 20-gram portions; roll each portion into a ball. Place on a plate and cover with plastic wrap to prevent dough balls from drying out while you begin to roll them out. Work in batches of 5.
- Mix cornstarch and 2 tablespoons flour together in a bowl. Dust a work surface and the first dough ball with cornstarch mixture; flatten and roll out into a circle, about 5 inches in diameter. Dust again with cornstarch mixture. Set circle to one side. Roll out 4 more dough balls to about the same diameter and stack them on the first one, dusting each layer with more cornstarch mixture to keep them from sticking together.
- When you have 5 circles, roll out the stack to a larger circle about double in size, turning as you go to maintain a round shape. Separate each layer and lay out the circles. Reapply more cornstarch mixture where needed and restack them. Roll again until the 5-layer stack is paper-thin, about 10 to 12 inches in diameter. Place on a sheet of parchment paper; top with another piece of parchment. Gently roll up the dough; wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
- Repeat with the remaining 15 balls of dough in batches of 5.
- You can use your phyllo sheets to make
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Reviews
Super easy to follow but my dough stuck together so gonna try it again
EXCELLENT recipe! After all the years of trying this is the one, a real keeper! Thank you!
Easy to make, fun to make, and is great phyllo dough!
Awesome recipe! I have made this many times for baklava and spanakopita. The trick is to use the least amount of flour when rolling and then taking the sheets apart and re-stacking them for the best results. I let my phyllo dough rest under a bowl instead of in plastic wrap, works just the same. It does take some practice but when you do it right it comes out perfectly.
Once upon a time filo pastry was made without plastic!!! Please offer the original method instead of all this plastic!
Hi guys, female qualified chef here. After being asked by my boss to make a vegan phyllo by hand I chanced upon this recipe: 1. It does stick together well if you knead it adequately, which for me making a double recipe took 25 minutes by hand 2. Rolling all the layers together only works if you put LOTS of starch between the layers, and it still takes a massive amount of time. The best result I got was putting each layer In a pasta machine, making paper thin, and Drowning in olive oil between layers at the direction of my head chef (still took a long time to roll the layers paper thin)
I made this and used to make ground pork egg rolls! But I need to do it again. The dough is a little fiddley. I’ll keep practicing.
I will defiately make it again since it worked pretty well for me however it kept ripping which wasn’t great.
Perfect! Made exactly as the recipe specified, with the exception that i eyeballed the 20 dough balls (since I don’t have a scale). Never imagined I could make phyllo. Mine was so thin it was translucent. Made a perfect spinach pie.
I used this recipe for the crust for a quiche and it turned out amazing! My fiancée said it was the best quiche she’s ever had and couldn’t stop talking about how great the crust tasted.
Very good recipe. I was actually surprised that it was pretty simple. I thought the final outcome was a bit dry. I’m not sure if this was my overuse of the flour/cornstarch mixture? However, I will definitely use this recipe again!
I didn’t put enough starch on them before stacking them while I was rolling them all out but it turned out fantastic ! We had the tastiest meat pies with this dough.
So easy!
Loved the way how Chef John explained it step by step.
It turned out great! Thanks Chef John! We will make it again soon!
It was like magic! I always hate admitting I can’t make something by having to buy it every time, and if I knew phyllo dough could be so easy I would have stopped buying it ages ago. The video was perfect too: very helpful, not too fast-paced or painfully slow and entertaining. I made it to use in Bulgarian Banitsa in honor of Baba Marta and my husband was very pleased. So was I! My brother also loves Eastern European cuisine and cooking and when I sent him a picture of my hand through the dough he was satisfactorily envious. 🙂
I can’t thank you enough, Chef. My first time making homemade phyllo, and it was perfect. I picked up a package of store-bought phyllo and it was full of undesirable ingredients; I feel much better using this recipe. I couldn’t believe that the circles didn’t stick to each other while rolling them out together. Thanks for giving me the confidence to do something that I’ve been putting off for years.
This was surprisingy simple enough. I didnt even have cornstarch on hand so I rolled the sheets with plenty of plain flour for dusting. As a result, I couldnt go as far as I’d have liked but now I know the recipe and technique works as stated, and I dont know why I waited so long to try homemade phyllo.
Wasn’t as flakey as I’d like for pot pie, but it definitely tasted great! Maybe I should roll even thinner next time!