Filo vs. Puff Pastry – 4 Things that Make them Different

As the famous food writer used to say back in the past, “You may feel that you have eaten too much…But this pastry is like feathers – it is like snow. It is in fact good for you, a digestive!” Both filo and puff pastry are the “kings” of the frozen foods when it comes to quick and easy snacks. There’s no doubt that these two can turn a boring dinner into a delicious feast! But still, many people tend to ignore the differences between them, which we are going to reveal today. Keep reading!

1. Origin

Although both products look pretty much similar, surprisingly they don’t come from the same country. It turns out that puff pastry derives from France, where people use to call it pâte feuilletée. On the other hand, filo pastry (a.k.a. phyllo) comes from the Balkans, more specifically from Greece. Actually, the word ‘filo’ corresponds to the actual product as in Greek it means “leaf”, “layer”.

2. Technology

Yes, they are both types of dough with layers and that’s why most of you still get them wrong. After reading this article, you won’t have this problem, though! So, puff pastry is laminated dough. What does this mean? Well, imagine rolling out pastry, putting butter in the middle, folding it and rolling out again. Now imagine repeating this process as many times as possible. That’s lamination. On the contrary, filo is made of paper-like (or leaf-like) sheets of dough. It usually doesn’t have so much fat, but is mostly flour, water and lots of drying time.

3. Texture

Now that you know how phyllo differs from puff pastry, you can probably guess what the texture differences are. Or at least you can say there are some! Well, as puff pastry consists of so many layers, this automatically gives the products a very special airiness and flakiness. All this makes the outer part quite crunchy. In comparison, people say that filo pastry is also very crispy, but it usually doesn’t have so much air between the sheets.

4. Working process

As a matter of fact, both types of dough require lots of efficiency and quick reactions. That’s because they usually come from the freezer or from the refrigerator and you don’t want to ‘miss’ them! However, as with each product, the working process with filo or with puff pastry is somehow different. For example, when cooking with phyllo you have to make sure it doesn’t dry fast. So, in case you need to do something else in the meantime, you should cover the sheets with a plastic foil or at least with a towel. You still wonder how to work with puff pastry, on the other side? Check out this article as it gives some amazing advice! To make things even easier for you, we’ve gathered Greek’s best types of pies both with filo or puff pastry in a separate category! Click here and check them out today!