crisp phyllo cups filled with sweet cream and fruit

I bought a pastry book. This was probably a bad idea, because I have enough fat, sugar, and flour in my life, surely. But it was so pretty and, because it was a little wrinkled here and there, so cheap. I spent the evening paging through it, salivating. I haven't made any actual recipes out of it (only admired the pictures) but I have had three phyllo (or filo) adventures inspired by it. Here are two.

The phyllo cups, washed with yogurt before baking, turn out crisp and buttery at their topmost edges and moist but firm at their bases. I was quite pleased with the end result; I hope you are, too.


Phyllo Pastry Cup Adventures: 
Chocolate, Rum, and Fresh Cherry Cups 
& Blueberry Cream Cups
inspired by Pastry Cook by Catherine Atkinson

1 pkg filo or phyllo (found by the frozen pie crusts)

1/2 C yogurt
2 tsp brown sugar
2 Tb butter, melted

The night before, take your frozen package of phyllo and let it defrost in the fridge overnight. 

The next day, in a small bowl, mix the yogurt, brown sugar, and melted butter.

Grease two mini muffin tins (or big muffin tins, if that's all you have. I quite enjoy my mini's though, especially for making homemade Reeses cups and such). Unroll the defrosted phyllo and carefully peel off eight sheets. The key word here is patience; and the best advice not to panic. It's okay if they rip. Just relax; you have more sheets if you need them. Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, slice the sheets of phyllo into sixteen squares (4 rows and 4 columns). (Cut larger squares if you're making full size muffin cups).

Press the first square into a muffin cup. Brush on the yogurt mixture, making especially sure to get the overhanging edges (or they'll burn, like mine did). Cover the phyllo with plastic wrap when you're not picking up a new square. Press three more squares into the muffin cup (for a total of four squares per cup), brushing each with the yogurt mixture. Repeat for each muffin cup.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, or until the sides are golden and crisp. Let cool.

While the cups cool and bake, make the fillings.

Rum, chocolate, and cherries
1/2 C whipping cream 1/8 C sugar

6 Tb dark chocolate
2 tsp rum
1 Tb butter

12 fresh bing cherries, pitted and halved

Beat together 1/2 C heavy whipping cream and 1/8 C sugar. (If you're doing both types of pastry cups (chocolate cherry and blueberries with cream), double this and beat 1 C cream and 1/4 C sugar because you need this for both) for 10 minutes, watching carefully. You do not want this to turn into butter. I always make the mistake of going to long and passing the whipped cream stage entirely. It's okay if you don't beat quite long enough and it's a little soft, but beating too long and turning it into butter is less good.

On a double boiler, mix chocolate, rum, and butter. Dollop a little chocolate into the bottom of twelve filo cups. Top with whipped cream. Add another small dollop of chocolate. Place one cherry, halved and pitted, on each cup. If you have any extra chocolate or cream (I did), place it on top as well.

Blueberries and cream
1/2 C heavy whipping cream
1/8 C sugar

2 Tb plum jam
blueberries

Beat together 1/2 C heavy whipping cream and 1/8 C sugar. Fill each phyllo cup with whipped cream, then top with a dash of plum preserves and 4-5 blueberries. Press the blueberries down into the cream, and top with a few more blueberries. 

Refrigerate both types of cups before serving.


I'm doing something new with this post. I'm using my handy-dandy basic mathematics skills and my ability to read nutritional facts on boxes and online and I'm including a carb and calorie count. Hopefully this will be a continuing addition to my posts. The carbs are counted because I'm Type One Diabetic (not the one you keep hearing about on the news-- that's Type Two and a completely different condition (can you tell this is a pet peeve?)) and knowing how much medicine to take is a good thing. The calories are counted because knowledge is power, and I thought you all might be interested.

Empty, each phyllo cup has approx. 30 calories and 4 carbohydrates.

In each blueberry cream cup (including both shell and filling) there are approx. 85 calories and 10 carbohydrates.

In each chocolate cherry cup (including both shell and filling) there are approx. 103 calories and 10 carbohydrates.