Tikvenik – Phyllo Dough Pumpkin Sweet

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This is one of the things I’ve craved the most when I was pregnant with my daughter. Gosh, wash I glad when I finally found a ready made phyllo dough from the store! I love tikvenik made with home made phyllo dough, but it takes too much time, especially when you are as big as a blimp. 🙂

Anyway,here is the recipe that I make, I hope you like it!

You will need:

1 package ready made Athens phyllo dough
3 cups mashed pumpkin ( I usually use one medium butter squash, cut and boil it, then mash it. If I have any left I cut it and store it in the freezer; if you don’t want to bother with a real pumpkin, get 2 cans pumpkin pie filling, but have in mind the taste wouldn’t be the same)
1 1/3cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup powdered sugar


Preparation:

1.Preheat the oven at 375F

2.Wash, cut and boil the pumpkin until ready. Mash with a potato masher, but leave some larger pieces in.

3. In a large pan place 1 tbsp vegetable oil and add the pumpkin, 1 cup of the sugar, the cinnamon and the walnuts. Stir well until the sugar is dissolved.

4. Open the package phyllo dough and spread it out. Heat the vegetable oil in a small pan and keep warm, so when you sprinkle some on top of the phyllo dough layer, it would sizzle. Be careful not to overheat it though, because it could burn and give unpleasant taste to the tikvenik.

5. On top of the phyllo layers sprinkle some vegetable oil ( not more than 1 tsp!), then spread 2-3 tablespoons of the pumpkin mixture evenly( so much as to cover slightly the surface, as on the picture), then sprinkle some of the leftover sugar.
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6. Roll 3 of the phyllo layers together, then sprinkle with some hot vegetable oil again, and roll in 2 more phyllo layers as shown in the pictures.
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7. With a sharp knife cut even pieces and place them on a greased cookie sheet.
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8. When you place all the pieces on the cookie sheet, sprinkle some hot vegetable oil and sugar crystals on top.
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9. Bake for 15-17 min or until crispy and golden on top. Take them out of the pan immediately after baking and let them cool. I recommend to place them in different plates while cooling down, not on 2 or more rows, because the ones on the bottom would not be crispy anymore. It’s fine to pile them up once they are cold.

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10. Sift some powdered sugar on top and serve cold.

Once you taste the sugary crispiness of this pumpkin sweet, you would never want to prepare pumpkin any other way, I guarantee it!

Enjoy!