Granite Transformations’ Recipe of the Month

Last Updated on February 11, 2020

Each month, Granite Transformations’ newsletter features a recipe from its “My Table” cookbook, a collection of delicious recipes from around the world.  This month we showcase our recipe for Tikvenik, a pumpkin-filled phyllo, the perfect addition to any Thanksgiving meal.  Misplaced a past recipe from our newsletter? Check out our Pinterest page (www.pinterest.com/granitetrans). We continuously add recipes onto our Recipes board.

The great thing about this recipe (basically pumpkin pie in flaky pastry) is that it expands to meet the size of your crowd. Small group? Just make and join two or three spirals. Half the neighborhood? Make ten or twenty spirals and braid them into a beautiful round wreath. Golden crisp, either one is a dramatic and aromatic conclusion to this hearty meal.

Ingredients

3 pounds [1500 g] pumpkin pie, peeled and diced

1 cup [250 ml] brown sugar

1 tablespoon [15 ml] cinnamon

1 ½ cups [375 ml] walnuts, chopped

1 pound [500 g] phyllo dough, thawed

½ cup [125 ml] melted butter

Directions

Steam the pumpkin in a steamer until soft. Drain well and mash, then add the brown sugar and cinnamon. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly to blend flavors, about five minutes. Cool to room temperature and stir in walnuts.

Unfold the phyllo and lay one sheet out flat. Keep the sheets you are not using loosely covered with a barely damp towel until you need them. Brush the first sheet lightly with melted butter, then cover with a second sheet.

Spread one half cup [125 ml] of the pumpkin mixture across the width of the sheet. Fold in thetwo short ends to seal in the pumpkin. Roll into acylinder and then coil into a spiral. Repeat and keepadding to the spiral. Brush with melted butter.

Bake in a preheated 425 F [220 C] oven until slightly brown. Reduce the heat to 350 F [175 C]and bake for forty minutes.

Cook’s note: Don’t tell any of your purist friends, but this recipe works also with canned mashed pumpkin. (Buy it unseasoned, not the variety packaged as pumpkin pie filling.) Just spoon it out into a pan and season it as above, following the rest of the instructions as written.