Brik pastry substitutes

The closest widely available product: pre-cooked, pliable, and it fries to a blistered, bubbly crisp.

Best for

brik a l'oeuf, where the sheet has to hold a raw egg, any fried brik or briouat, beginners, because it does not crack

Get the wheat-and-water kind from the freezer, not rice paper. Buy the biggest size you can find, since brik sheets are large and a small wrapper will not close over a whole egg. The result is slightly chewier and a shade less delicate than real malsouka, and just as crisp.

Thinner than spring roll wrappers and closer to brik pastry's papery fineness.

Best for

getting the most delicate crust, smaller briks and briouats, shallow frying

They fry pale gold in under a minute and shatter beautifully. Being so thin they tear more easily than spring roll wrappers, so use two overlapping sheets if you are wrapping something wet, and handle them straight from thawed rather than half frozen.

The substitute most Western recipes name, and it works with more care and more butter.

Best for

when the supermarket has phyllo and nothing else, baked rather than fried versions, cooks comfortable working quickly

Brush every sheet with melted butter or oil and cut to a round. Unlike malsouka, phyllo is a raw dough that is brittle when dry, so it cracks if you dawdle and the layers can leak, which means folding the edges over twice and pressing hard. It fries flakier and more shattery rather than blistered and slightly chewy.

Thicker and doughier, which changes the eating experience more than it changes the method.

Best for

when only the thick wrappers are in the shop, sturdier fillings that might tear a thin sheet, hungry people

These are strong and easy to seal, so they will hold an egg without complaint. Being much thicker, they fry to something closer to a fried dumpling than a brik: heavier, breadier, with a distinct chew instead of a shatter. Roll them a little thinner with a pin if you have a minute.

The gluten-free option, and a dramatic if unfaithful one.

Best for

gluten-free briks, when nothing wheat-based is available, cooks who do not mind a fiddly job

Dip it for a couple of seconds only, no longer, or it turns to glue. In hot oil it puffs and blisters into a glassy, extremely crisp shell, which is impressive but nothing like malsouka's texture. It tears when wet and burns quickly, so work fast and keep the oil moderate.

The honest answer, because this is essentially what brik pastry is.

Best for

when no shop nearby stocks any wrapper, getting closest to the real thing, cooks who enjoy the process

Whisk about one cup of fine semolina and half a cup of plain flour with roughly one and three quarter cups of water and a pinch of salt to a thin batter, then cook paper-thin rounds on a dry non-stick pan on one side only, twenty to thirty seconds each. Twenty minutes of work and the result is a cooked, flexible sheet that behaves the way malsouka does.