Pieces of phyllo dough Greek pie bougatsa stacked on top of each other. Close-up. Macro. Selective focus.
Food - Drink
The Best Flour To Use When Making Homemade Phyllo Dough
By HEATHER LIM
Raw phyllo dough layers rolled up with a wooden rolling pin in the background
Phyllo (or filo) is an unleavened type of pastry with flaky sheets as thin as tissue paper, used in dishes like baklava, borek, and spanakopita. Because of the work needed to make it from scratch, many cooks buy premade phyllo dough from the store, but you can successfully make it at home if you have the right ingredients.
Layers of phyllo dough stacked on a wooden board next to a wood bowl of flour
You need patience, rigorous rolling, and a specific kind of flour to make successful phyllo at home. Despite being a pastry, phyllo dough should be made with bread flour, since this flour has a high protein and gluten content that keeps the dough sturdy, even as it's stretched into a large sheet, then turned into fragile layers.
Circular layers of rolled out phyllo dough, stacked
If you were to use any other flour, like all-purpose or cake flour, your phyllo dough would be more prone to ripping or simply unable to keep its shape, and the texture would be off. Bread flour gives phyllo dough its signature crispy crunch once it's baked, and keeps the layers of pastry separate using strong gluten bonds.
A mound of flour next to stalks of wheat
Top view of an assortment of Greek dishes on a blue and white striped background
A slice of portokalopita, a Greek orange cake, on a white plate
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