Baklava
Fresh baklava is divine. It's rare that the piece you buy from your local kebab shop is fresh and not smelling like the chopped up onions they're sitting next to. Once you try the perfect baklava, you'll know why it's such a popular sweet in Greece, Turkey and the Middle East.
Ingredients
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ cup water
- 4 tbsp runny honey
- 2 tsp rosewater
- ½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 250 g nuts (walnuts, almonds or pistachios) finely chopped
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 12 sheets filo pastry
- 100 g butter melted
Instructions
The sugar syrup
- Add the sugar, honey, rosewater, lemon juice and water to a saucepan over a gentle heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, momentarily bring to the boil.
- Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
The filling
- In a small bowl mix together the chopped walnuts, cinnamon and sugar.
To assemble baklava
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a shallow baking tin approximately 30cm x 20cm x 5cm with melted butter.
- Cut the sheets of filo in half vertically (longest edge nearest you). Stack the pastry and keep it covered with a slightly damp cloth. Generously butter each pastry sheet and layer 8 sheets of pastry on the bottom of the tin.
- Spread half the filling over the pastry evenly, then butter and stack another 8 sheets of filo. Put the filo on top and spread on the rest of the filling. Butter and stack the last 8 sheets of filo and put these on top.
- Brush generously with the remaining butter. Using a sharp knife cut the baklava into 20 small squares or diamonds. Bake in the 180°C oven for 30 minutes.
- Lower the heat to 150ºC and bake for a further 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes.
- Pour the cold sugar syrup over the pastry and leave until completely cold. Serve the Baklava with strong black coffee.
Notes
Baklava will keep well for several days in a container, stored in the refrigerator.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
