These are the little apps we munched on while we watched the eTalk Red-Carpet special, trashed George’s girlfriend, and played fashion police. Nicole and I made these little triangles for our Smitten Kitchen Christmas dinner (which I will write a Retro-blog post about!) with a spinach & feta filling and another batch with a caramelized onion & goat cheese filling. For the Oscars, I made a mushroom filling from another recipe on SK, and substituted in marsala wine for sherry, since I have 1/2 a bottle of marsala wine leftover from another SK Christmas recipe.
A few notes on phyllo, because it’s a little scary to work with. Basically since the sheets of dough are like tissue paper, they will dry out very quickly and tear very easily if you don’t keep them protected. This is what I did: put a layer of plastic wrap on my counter, placed the stack of phyllo on top, covered with another layer of plastic, and placed a clean, damp kitchen towel over top. Next to that I set up a cookie sheet, a pizza cutter (to easily slice the dough), the cooled mushroom filling, and a dish of melted butter with a brush.
And here are the finished triangles waiting for the oven:
I’m sure you’re thinking - can’t I just buy these kinds of things in a box at the grocery store? My view is that while that’s obviously easier, there’s a nerdy amount of accomplishment that I feel in making something from scratch that can be found in a box. Plus you know exactly what’s in it, and there’s no weird preservatives or additives. And they’re amazing!
Marsala Mushroom Triangles
Source: Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients
1 package phyllo pastry, thawed overnight in the fridge, or at room temperature for 5 hours (You won’t use the whole package, but you need to thaw the whole thing anyway)
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup butter, melted
1 lb cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 medium onion, minced
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp marsala wine
1 tbsp flour
4-6 tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set up your triangle prep station as described above.
- In a large skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter and cook the onion 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the mushrooms and saute for 5 to 7 minutes, until liqued has been released and partially evaporated. Add the marsala wine and evaporate the alcohol by cooking over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the flour and a pinch of salt & pepper, and let cool. The mixture will be moist.
- Take one sheet of phyllo and place it on the cookie sheet, brush with butter, top with a second phyllo sheet and brush with butter. Cover remaining sheets with your plastic and damp towel.
- Use the pizza cutter to slice phyllo into 4 columns. Dollop a spooonful of mushroom filling at the bottom of each column and sprinkle some parmesan over it. Begin folding one bottom corner of the phyllo strip over the filling until it meets the opposite edge, forming a triangle, as if you were folding a flag. Place the triangle seam side down on the baking sheet, brush lightly with butter. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm.
Using this method made 16 small triangles. Triangles freeze well and can be baked from frozen - just add a few minutes to the baking time.
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