Mini Spanakopita Triangles

Lately I’ve been looking for my cooking projects that can keep my hands (and my mind) busy. I find endless crimping and folding really soothing (dumplings are also great for this). I decided to whip up some spanakopita with pre-made phyllo dough that I had in my freezer. While there’s a special place in my heart for the pre-made spanakopita you can buy in the freezer aisle at the grocery store, these blow them out of the water. They’re just so much more flakey and buttery, and it’s nice knowing exactly what goes into them (in my case, just spinach, feta and dried herbs).

If you’re looking for a quick cooking project to throw yourself into, these Mini Spanakopita Triangles are just the ticket. Yes they’re buttery, but right now butter is my salve for the woes of the world (I highly recommend it).

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 4 cups baby spinach
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 4 (17- by 12-inch) phyllo sheets, thawed if frozen

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium sized pan, heat 1 tablespoon of butter until melted. Add in spinach and sauté, tossing until spinach has cooked down.
3. Set spinach aside in a medium-sized bowl to cool. Using scissors, cut up spinach into very small pieces. Add feta, garlic powder and oregano and thoroughly combine.
4. Cover phyllo stack with a dampened kitchen towel so that it doesn’t dry out.
5. Take 1 phyllo sheet from stack and arrange on a work surface with a long side nearest you (keeping remaining sheets covered) and brush all over with some butter. Then, top with another phyllo sheet and brush with more butter. Cut buttered phyllo stack crosswise into 6 (2 inch wide) strips.
6. Put a heaping teaspoon of spinach and feta filling near 1 corner of a strip on end nearest you, then fold corner of phyllo over to enclose filling and form a triangle. Continue folding strip (like a flag), maintaining triangle shape. Put triangle, seam side down, on a large baking sheet and brush top with butter. Make more triangles in same manner, using all of phyllo.
7. Bake triangles in middle of oven until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool slightly.