So, I've been looking for a gluten-free alternative to phyllo...and I think I've found it! I started experimenting today with rice paper... treating it almost as I would phyllo, wrapping it around walnuts, chocolate chips, with a little bit of brown sugar and cinnamon mixed in.
Its not perfect, its a little more crunchy than phyllo, but wrapped into logs around the filling gave enough of a feel of pastry...
Here's what I did.
Wetted down the round (I dunked it a few times, until it was starting to soften). Put it down, brushed melted butter over it, and then rolled it up, with the filling placed near the end. Finished off with another dab of butter, and baked in the oven at 350.
You can do them with no butter on the inside, but I do suggest at least having a dab of butter on top... and they do turn out better if they can absorb the butter a little... I do wonder if it would be better to let them sit for 5 minutes before baking...
but it was so nice to have a crisp mouthful of something! And I will be trying this with a savory filling as well...party food!
I then, since I had the ingredients out, decided to experiment with making baklava... The first attempt, shown here, looks well, but the wrappers disintegrated somewhat in the syrup.... I hadn't prebaked the rice wrappers. The top crust was fairly light and crunchy though. I had layered the nut mixture with the fauxfilo, but I made the mistake of pouring on some syrup beforehand, and letting it sit, to try and keep it moister. I think that if I had just done a layering of buttered fauxfilo with the filling, adding a splash of syrup and putting it in the oven instantly, it would have worked better.....
