Nutty Creamy Phyllo Cigars
These nutty creamy phyllo cigars are a crispy phyllo cigar filled with a mixture made of thickened cream, dates, nuts! I came up with this recipe while having baklava and thought what if it could be creamy. I love using phyllo sheets in desserts so i had to give it a try. I wanted the filling to be minimal work so i thought of thickening the cream with corn starch on a stove and it worked! The textures and flavors added with the nuts, dates, lemon, rose water and crispy phyllo makes every bite perfect! This dessert is perfect for any celebration especially Eid and even for Diwali.
I don’t know if this is a dessert that is popular in a country but I tried researching it and didn’t find it so if there is a name for this, please tell me!
Happy Baking!
Servings: 9-12 cigars
Prep Time: 30-40 mins
Cooking Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 1-1.5 hours
Ingredients:
Cream Filling:
6-8 Medjool dates, pitted
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup pistachio
2 cups 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup corn starch
1/4 cup sugar
Zest of one Lemon
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Rosewater
Assembly:
1 roll (8 oz) phyllo sheets
2 tbsp chopped pistachio
1 tbsp dried rose petals
Simple syrup- 1/3 cup water, 3-4 tbsp sugar, 4 -6 saffron strands
Flour mixture- 1 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp water
Oil to deep fry
Directions:
Thaw phyllo roll in the fridge/counter.
Chop dates into pieces and them aside.
Using a mortar and pestle crush walnuts and pistachios for the filling. Keep the pieces around the size of green peas.
Thickened Cream:
In a pan on low heat add heavy cream, corn starch, and sugar using a whisk, whisk it together to prevent lumps.
Keep whisking for 5-8 minutes till the cream thickens. You need to keep whisking it to prevent lumps and burning the base. At one point even if it looks like there are lumps forming, keep whisking and it will eventually come together.
Cook it till it thickens and forms a smooth mixture.
Once thickened take it off the flame, add lemon zest, lemon juice and rosewater and whisk it together.
Add in the chopped nuts and dates and mix.
Transfer to a bowl and cover with cling wrap. Chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours.
Sugar syrup- In a pan add water, sugar and saffron strands on medium heat. Stir well and let the sugar melt till it thickens a bit. Let it cool completely.
Assembly: Mix flour with 2-3 tbsp water to form a thick but spreadable paste.
Divide phyllo sheets into sets of two and cut them into half vertically. Further cut 4-5 sets of the cut sheets into half. Keep the phyllo sheets covered with a damp towel while not using them or they will dry out.
Place a half cut set on a work surface and place one of the further cut sets horizontally close to one end. (see the video)
Pipe/ spoon the filling as a log in the middle the horizotonal piece.
Close the edges of the horizontal piece over the filling to enclose it.
Roll the vertical phyllo over the filling and roll to form a cigar.
Brush a little of the flour paste as needed to seal the cigar.
Repeat for all sets.
While assembling, heat up oil to deep fry.
Once the oil is hot deep fry the rolls till they are golden and cripsy. Be quick as it cooks fast and you don’t want the cream filling to curdle or ooze out.
Once fried, let it cool for 3-4 mins.
Before serving top with chopped pistachio and crushed rose petals.
Serve with the sugar syrup. You can drizzle some over it serve it on the side to dip into. The Swipe up for the recipegar syrup will make it soggy if it sits for long so keep that not account.
Best served warm. Enjoy!
Notes/Tips:
Make sure you keep whisking the cream so that it doesn’t form lumps or burn.
Add as many (more) nuts as you like.
I highly recommend piping the filling versus using a spoon to fill.
While rolling the cigars make sure you enclose the filling well so it doesn’t ooze out.
I have tried baking and air frying these but the filling curdled so I don’t recommend it.
You can add some cardamom powder and orange blossom water to the filling if you like.
Make sure to add the lemon at the end so that it doesn’t curdle the mixture.
