Crispy Feta Cheese Filo Pastry Spirals

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Crispy Feta Cheese Filo Pastry Spirals are insanely delicious! Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake until golden brown and crispy. Drizzle them with hot honey for a deliciously cheesy treat!

phyllo wrapped feta cheese on plate with hot honey

The crispy feta cheese filo pastry spirals your guests will go bonkers for!

Imagine this: butter-basted sheets of filo loaded with a combination of crumbled feta cheese and shredded mozzarella made into a perfect swirl. Then we’ll drizzle more melted butter and bake it in a dish until they’re perfectly flakey and golden.

Ugh! These take me right back to Greece! We had these filo pastry wrapped feta parcels as an appetizer in Mykonos a few years back. They were made with sheep’s milk feta and sprinkled with herbs like fresh thyme. And honestly, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Greek dishes like Spinach Puff Pastry inspired by Spanakopita, Baklava, and of course, Saganaki, but when you want something cheesy and delicious, phyllo-wraped feta is honestly the crispiest thing to enjoy.

Can I also say that these remind me of Turkish Börek? I can’t tell you how much cheese stuffed in phyllo dough we had in Turkey. The taste is incredible!

If you’re sensing a theme here, that I travel to eat food, you would be correct in assuming that!

Ingredients for Feta Cheese Filo Pastry:

Feta Cheese: You can crumble a block of feta for this recipe or purchase crumbled feta. If you buy feta packed in brine, I suggest draining it and letting it dry a bit on a paper towel so that the brine doesn’t cause the delicate sheet of phyllo to tear when you fold it.
Shredded Mozzarella: Combining the two cheeses adds a different flavor profile. I tried the recipe with feta cheese alone and found it wasn’t as delicious as when I added mozzarella into the mix. Feel free to cut back on some feta and mozzarella and introduce a third (or, dare I say, fourth) type of cheese into the mix.
Phyllo Pastry: you’ll want to work quickly with filo sheets. I like to use a damp towel to cover the sheets of phyllo dough while rolling. This keeps them from drying out and makes folding a bit easier.
Butter: You can use both unsalted and salted butter for this recipe. The only caveat is that if your cheese has a lot of salt, I suggest using unsalted butter to curb some of the saltiness. If you’re serving this with honey, salted butter yields better results by balancing the sweetness better.
Sesame Seeds: These are for sprinkling on top before baking. Feel free to omit the sesame seeds or use black sesame seeds here if that’s what you like!
Honey: It is completely optional. The phyllo-wrapped feta we had in Greece was always served drizzled with honey. But I somewhat enjoyed the Turkish Börek swirls a bit more, and those never had honey! Also, you can use homemade or store-bought hot honey or regular honey for this recipe.

phyllo swirls in baking dish with sesame seeds

How to make the most delicious Greek feta cheese in phyllo:

Start the prep. Start by preheating the oven and melt the first batch of butter in the microwave. We’ll use this for brushing. In a bowl, combine the crumbled feta and shredded mozzarella and mix as best as you can. Spray your baking dish with cooking spray; alternately, you can line it with parchment paper to keep the rolls from sticking.
Fill up the rolls. Lay a sheet of phyllo pastry in front of you on a clean work surface. You’ll want to cover the remaining stack of phyllo sheets with a damp towel to keep them from drying out. Then brush the single sheet of phyllo with melted butter. Buttering the layers helps them bake up extra crispy. Then fold the sheet over in half. Sprinkle with roughly 2-3 tablespoons worth of the cheese mixture. Start rolling the phyllo over the filling until you reach the other end.
Wrap it up. Then twist one side of the phyllo dough together to create a coil. You’ll want to keep twisting until you have a ‘cinnamon roll-like’ wrap. Place this in the prepared baking pan and continue wrapping the remaining phyllo the same way.
Bake until golden. Melt the remaining butter in a small bowl. Drizzle or brush the rolls with this. Then sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Cook them in a preheated oven until they’re golden and crispy.
Drizzle and serve. Drizzle the rolls with hot honey if you’d like. Doing this while they’re hot out of the oven does cause the rolls to soften slightly, so you may want to drizzle once they are slightly cooled.

cheese pastries in baking dish with sesame seeds

FAQs about this recipe

Can I use a variety of cheese in these rolls?

My recipe is inspired by Trader Joe’s Greek Spirals. They use a variety of cheeses to make those, so I’m confident you can swap some of the cheese for different kinds. Here are some to try: Goat cheese, gouda, blue cheese, white cheddar, akawi, provolone, and gruyere.

Greek baked feta parcels typically are speckled with herbs; how would I do that?

You can use a tablespoon of fresh thyme, oregano, some chopped parsley, a tablespoon of chopped dill, or a combination of all four to make these a bit more flavorful on the inside. Feel free to add a little black pepper too! It works beautifully with the honey drizzle!

Can I bake more than one box of phyllo dough at a time?

Yes, I suggest using a large baking sheet (the way you would for a large batch of cinnamon rolls) Place the rolls so that the seam side is tucked, either into the baking tray or to the roll next to it so that it doesn’t unravel during baking. The baking time increases if you make a larger batch, but just look for them to turn golden brown and crispy!

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Yield: makes 12-14 rolls