Goat Cheese Phyllo Purses

By lauramae

Elegant phyllo purses filled with tangy goat cheese and bacon. Purses, or you might know them as Beggar’s Purses: an oozy goat cheese filling wrapped up with a few layers of delicate, crispy phyllo dough. And butter. Where there is phyllo, there is butter!

Ingredients

• 5 oz goat cheese, softened
• 2 Tbsp chives, chopped
• 4 slices of pancetta or bacon, cooked to a crisp (prosciutto is good, it's just not crispy)
• black pepper
• 6 sheets of phyllo dough
• 6-8 Tbsp of melted butter
• Chives or strips of the tops of green onions for tying

Details

Adapted from jasonandshawnda.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 400.

Stir together goat cheese, chives, crumbled bacon, and a few grinds of black pepper in a small bowl. If the goat cheese is too hard, put it in the microwave for 10 seconds.

Unroll the phyllo dough onto a dry surface. Remove 1 sheet of phyllo dough and place it on a dry surface (I put a sheet of wax paper between the dough and countertop).

Brush the entire top of the sheet with melted butter.

Top with another sheet of phyllo and brush the top of it with melted butter.

Repeat with one more sheet of phyllo. Cut the stack into 4 equal rectangles.

Place a golf ball-sized filling onto the center of each piece of dough. Gather the sides into a pouch and form a purse, pinching the gathered dough.

Tie a chive or a strip of green onion around the gathered dough.

Place the purse onto a lined baking sheet and lightly brush with melted butter.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until the phyllo purse tops are golden brown and crispy.

Remove from oven and let cool. Serve warm or room temperature

Tips! Lay everything out – utensils, filling, melted butter, etc – before even opening your package of thawed phyllo.

Keep the unused pile of phyllo covered with a barely-damp paper towel (too wet and the top layer will stick to the paper towel)

If you put a large hole/tear in one of the three sheets of dough, just add a fourth sheet so you don’t lose any of the filling while baking.

Don’t underfill the purses. Underfilling will create too much of a “poof” on top of the purse – one that will get droopy in the oven and fall over sideways before it has time to crisp. It happens. Same great taste, but less impressive presentation.

Don’t pull too hard when tying the green onion strips/chives around the purse, they’ll snap. While mostly for appearance, it does aid a bit in keeping the purse closed in the oven.