Gujiya Phyllo Pastry Bites
These Phyllo stuffed with gujiya parcels are my take on traditional Gujiya. A crisp flaky baked pastry stuffed with sweet khoya or mawa, coconut and dry fruits. A popular Indian sweet specially made during the Holi festival.
Phyllo filled bites are my fun take on traditional Gujiyas (shaped as empanadas) with same flavor in the filling but wrapped in small phyllo sheets and baked.
Making homemade Gujiya can be a tedious and time-consuming task. And, on top of that they fried. I mean don’t get me wrong they taste delicious when made the original traditional way. I had this idea sitting in my various notes (phone, note pad) for about 2 years. I even wanted to share this around Diwali time.
These are inspired by Moroccan dessert M’hancha which means snake’ as it is coiled in that shape. Since I found out about M’hancha I kept thinking to myself, I can create this with Gujiya filling. I have never tried store-bougth Gujiya, because they are so thick and covered in so much sugar. I doubt I would like them.
Gujaratis make something similar which we call it ‘Ghughra’. I have tried them and so I know the taste of Gujiya. Its shape has the resemblance of empanada shape.
Why make these?
Same flavor
Baked
Different texture
Easier and quicker,
What is Gujiya?
As explained earlier, its deep-fried pastry with khoya, dry fruits, coconut stuffing which is sweetened by sugar. Different states have different names for this dessert. Mawa Karanji, Ghughra, Gujiya etc.
Store bought Khoya or mawa can be used, but I made m own at home. It is an additional step, but I am not fan of store bought mawa. I used equal portion milk and milk powder.
In a pan, mix ½ cup of full fat milk. Then add ½ cup of milk and whisk with no lumps in it. Place the pan on heat, stir and cook until you get thick solid mass of khoya remaining in pan. Do not leave it unattended. You must keep stirring it and the whole process takes 7-10 minutes. Let it cool down.
Little bit about the inspiration about the shape.
The shape is inspired from Morrocan Mhancha. Mhancha literally means serpent, serpentine or snake like because of the shape. It’s filled with almond paste and in similar way to and wrapped in phyllo sheets. They are either dipped in honey or sometimes in sugar syrup.
Gujiya bites sound difficult to make but they are not. Phyllo is easily available in most of the stores. Buy phyllo sheets. The key or the most important step is making these is to not break the phyllo sheets. Do not skimp on butter or ghee. The phyllo sheet needs to be greased with butter to have that flexibility when we try to fold and shape it.
Tips
You can use butter or ghee. Either is fine. Ghee gives more richer nuttier taste. Sugar can be adjusted to personal preference.
Remove them as soon as you see some browning.
You can use any combination of nuts you like.
Use generous amount of ghee or butter to grease the phyllo sheet.
More Holi recipes, here and here !
Gujiya Phyllo Bites
Ingredients
Khoya or Mawa
- ½ cup full fat milk powder
- ½ cup milk
Filling
- 1-2 tbsp shredded dry coconut
- 1 tbsp semolina
- 1-2 tbsp almond meal
- 2 tbsp mixed nuts coarsely ground
- ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
Sugar Syrup
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ cup water
- 1/8 tsp rose water or orange blossom water
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder
Phyllo
- 6 phyllo sheets
- ¼ cup melted ghee or butter
- Garnish pistachios or any other nuts rose petals, edible silver leaf etc.
Instructions
Khoya/ Mawa making and filling
- In a pan on medium heat, add semolina and dry coconut. Roast it until fragrant and it has some browning. Remove it in bowl and add remaining ingredients like chopped nuts, almond meal sugar and give it a good mix. Add in the cooled mawa. Mix everything to combine. Divide the mix into 6 equal portions. Form a rough thin long log. Leave it aside.
- Place a thawed phyllo sheet on a work surface or huge chopping board. Brush it gently with ghee or butter using a pastry brush. Keep the other sheets covered with a kitchen towel or else they will dry out.
- Place mawa log on the phyllo sheet, at the end leaving some space. Loosely and carefully roll up the sheet. Every time you roll, apply some ghee or butter on drier parts. Do not roll phyllo very tightly. If its loose, it will be easier in final shaping. Once you roll it all the way, gently and carefully start rolling into coil shape.
- Place shaped pastry in a muffin pan. I used muffin pan, so that they do not open while baking. Finish shaping rest of the phyllo sheet.
- Pre heat oven to 350 F.
- Transfer the muffin tray in the oven and bake for about 20-22 minutes or until lightly brown in color.
Sugar Syrup
- Meanwhile, make sugar syrup using sugar and water, add flavoring like rose water or orange blossom water and cardamom. If you want to use honey, you still need to warm it up. The consistency of sugar syrup should be thin not too thick. If its too thick, it won’t soak the pastry.
- Once the baked pastry comes out of the oven, immediately transfer them to sugar syrup one by one. Remove them on wire rack. I put one pastry in a bowl and poured over the sugar syrup. Removed it and repeated with rest.
- Garnish it with pistachios, rose petal and edible silver leaf.
Looks delicious!! Can we store them in fridge?
Yes, absolutely! Just remove them at room temperature before serving. With cold temperatures, they can stay out too.