Phyllo dough substitutes

Look for these first, because they are the same idea and often close to the same dough. Turkish yufka and Balkan bourek sheets are rolled far thicker than commercial phyllo and are sold either raw and frozen, in which case they behave almost exactly like heavy phyllo, or fresh and briefly griddle-cooked, in which case they are softer, more pliable and closer to a very thin flatbread. Either way they are much less prone to shattering while you work. Baked, they give a chewier, sturdier layer with the same clean flour flavour rather than the tissue-fine crackle of phyllo, which suits burek, banitsa and placinta better than it suits baklava. Because each sheet is thicker, use fewer of them and brush a little more generously.

Best for

burek and borek, banitsa, placinta and savoury coils, spanakopita and tiropita

Fresh yufka is round and large, so it will not lay flat in a rectangular pan. Cut it to fit and patch the offcuts into the middle layers where they will not be seen.

The best texture match on a supermarket shelf and badly underused for this. Wheat-flour spring roll wrappers are thin, unleavened and fat-free just like phyllo, and brushed with butter and baked they crisp and shatter almost identically, with a slightly chewier bite and a little more browning. The catch is size: they come in eight or ten inch squares, so they are excellent for triangles, cigars and small rolls and awkward for a big layered tray, where you have to overlap them like shingles. Keep them under a damp towel exactly as you would phyllo.

Best for

tiropita and spanakopita triangles, cheese cigars and rolls, small individual pies, baked samosa-style parcels

Buy the thin wheat wrappers sold frozen for spring rolls, not rice paper and not the thick egg-roll wrappers, which bake up tough and pale.

This is what most new cooks reach for and it is only sometimes right. Puff pastry has butter folded into it in layers, so it rises dramatically and bakes into something rich, tender and flaky rather than thin and crisp. In a savoury pie, a strudel or a spinach and cheese bake it works and tastes good, just noticeably heavier, more buttery and taller than intended. In baklava it fails: the syrup soaks into the risen buttery layers and collapses them into a sodden mass instead of being held between crisp sheets. Roll it thinner than it comes, prick it all over with a fork so it does not lift the filling off the base, and expect a shorter bake.

Best for

savoury meat and cheese pies, apple strudel, quick weeknight versions of layered pies

Never use puff pastry for baklava, kataifi-style syrup pastries or anything soaked after baking. The result is genuinely unpleasant and cannot be rescued.

Very doable and the traditional route across the Balkans, Turkey and Hungary. Mix about 3 cups flour, 1 cup warm water, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons oil and 1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice into a smooth, slack dough, knead it well, oil it and rest it covered for at least an hour so the gluten relaxes. Then divide it, roll each piece as thin as you can, and stretch it over the backs of your hands on a floured cloth until it is translucent. The result is thicker and more elastic than commercial phyllo, with a faint chew and a better flavour, so use fewer layers and brush each one.

Best for

strudel, burek and banitsa, cooks who cannot get phyllo locally at all, anyone who wants better flavour than the frozen boxes

The vinegar is not decoration. A little acid weakens the gluten just enough that the dough stretches paper-thin without tearing, which is the whole difficulty of this technique.

A legitimate shortcut for savoury pies and a common one in Armenian and Middle Eastern home cooking. Brushed with butter or oil and layered with filling, thin lavash bakes into a crisp-edged, sturdy pie with distinct layers. It tastes of bread, because it is bread, so the finished pie is chewier, breadier and less delicate than a phyllo pie, and it will not shatter when you cut it. It also absorbs moisture from a wet filling more readily, so drain your spinach or cheese thoroughly.

Best for

quick savoury cheese pies, layered casserole-style bakes, using up soft lavash before it stales

Soft fresh lavash works; the dry cracker-style lavash does not, because it will not soften and layer. Wrong for anything sweet.

The only honest gluten-free option and it is a partial one. Brushed with oil and baked, rice paper blisters and crisps into brittle, glassy shards, which reads as crisp but not as flaky, and it has a slightly chewy, gummy quality where phyllo is dry and short. It cannot hold syrup at all, so baklava is out, and it browns unevenly. It performs best in small baked parcels where a thin brittle wrapper is all you need. Spray or brush it lightly and bake hot, checking often because it goes from pale to burnt quickly.

Best for

gluten-free baked parcels and rolls, small crisp appetisers, vegetable and cheese cigars

Do not soak the rice paper in water first. Brush it with oil dry, or lightly mist it, or you will end up with a sticky mass that fuses into one sheet.