Baklava makes me extremely happy. Partial to baklava, I will always buy a piece if I come across it in my travels. I’m sure lovers of nuts and textural crunch will agree that baklava is the perfect treat. Simple, yet complex. Sweet and fragrant.
With so many cultures citing baklava in its staple of desserts, there are many variations, but fundamentally baklava is prepared with layers of filo pastry separated with melted butter, topped with nuts, layered again with filo, and headily drowned in a syrup that is left to seep through the sweet, leaving it moist, fragrant and addictive.
I find it hard to stop at just one piece… but only when the balance is right. All too often I’ve bitten into a piece of baklava to find it sickly sweet. The sweetness can be so overpowering that you almost can’t taste the nuttiness of the baklava. But when the sweetness is just right, baklava is heavenly. A gift from god.
Baklava can be found served in Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Balkans, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Serbia and Syria (and probably more countries that I don’t know about), and they all use slight variations of nuts and syrup flavours.
The day I recipe tested baklava and made it three times, was a happy day indeed in my kitchen. I tried a few different ways of making the filling and syrup and determined that this recipe was indeed my favourite. I also made it in four 10 cm spring form tins which each made four perfect servings (nice big servings of course).
For the syrup, I looked no further than my ‘Authority on all things Greek’, Peter from Souvlaki for the Soul whose syrup was indeed my favourite and the most fragrant by far! Peter has a number of wonderful Baklava-esque recipes which all look pretty spectacular.
Baklava really is very simple. A little fiddly with all the layering and butter-brushing, but not complicated and well worth the effort.
Baklava
BAKLAVA
1 cup raw shelled pistachios
1/2 cup raw slivered almonds
1/2 cup raw walnut kernals
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
Zest 1/2 orange
1 packet good quality filo pastry
75g unsalted butter
SYRUP
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons honey
Juice of half an orange
Preheat oven to 200° Celsius.
Place pistachios, almonds and walnuts on a baking tray and roast for 10 to 15 minutes until nicely roasted. Remove from oven and cool. Once cool place roasted nuts in a blender, pulsing until the nuts are finely chopped. Transfer nuts to a bowl and add cinnamon, cardamom and orange zest. Set aside.
Reduce oven temperature to 180° Celsius.
Melt butter in a saucepan or in the microwave. Working with 1 sheet of filo at a time and keeping the remaining filo covered with a lightly damp tea towel, brush each sheet of filo liberally with melted butter and lay on top of each other until you have used half of the filo sheets. With an 11 cm chef ring, cut out 8 rounds from the filo.
Taking four 10cm springform baking tins, place four filo rounds in the base of the tin, brush tops with butter and place the remaining four rounds on top. Divide the nut mixture into four and layer on top of the filo in each baking tin.
Using the remaining filo sheets, repeat the process of layering with melted butter and cutting 8 rounds from the filo. Top the nut mixture in each tin with one round of filo then brush the tops and add another round of filo. Brush a little remaining butter on the top of each and score the top section of filo with an “X” so that the baklava can soak in the syrup.
Place in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes until the tops of the baklava are golden.
10 minutes before the baklava has finished baking, combine sugar, water, honey and juice in a saucepan over medium high heat. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, then lover heat and simmer until a thick syrup forms. Remove from heat and set aside.
Remove baklava from oven and pour 1/4 of the syrup over each baklava round. Stand for 1-2 hours until baklava is cool. Cover and leave in a cool place until ready to serve. To serve, cut into pieces along score marks.
The baklava will keep for up to a week… if it will last that long.
Oh I love Baklava too but yes, it can be sticky sweet sometimes. Great idea do to the individual-ish portions ;D
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Gorgeous pix and fresh recipe
Gorgeous dish! I love baklava, but it’s one of those rare treats — never tried making it before. You’re so right that if it’s too sweet it’s just not that interesting. But properly balanced, it’s heavenly. Really nice recipe — thanks.
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Thanks John!
I share your love of baklava. The crunch, the aromatics and that intense sweetness. Thanks to the Turks, Croatia also has its own variation. I must make it sometime. Loving your rusty backdrop!
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Would love to see the Croatian version John!
Just last night, for the first time in years, I savored a piece of baklava. I had forgotten how much I love it. Your recipe sounds so fragrant and delicious. And your photographs are stunning. Thank you for sharing. –Rocquie
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I am a massive lover of baklava. Nuts, sweet, crunch, all good.
I have been wanting to make it myself for ages, but buying it and then scoffing it is just so easy (read lazy). I am going to have to have a go.
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This is some of the prettiest baklava I’ve ever seen! Can’t wait to take the recipe for a test run!
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Thanks for the lovely words Kailley!
Oh yes please! It almost looks like a massive baklava pie from one of the pictures – so awesome. I drive to the northside to get my baklava from a little gem.
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I have not made baklava for years and years since I worked in a Turkish restaurant. Will have to give yours ago sometime as i don’t have a recipe for it. Yum, yum, yum
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Thanks for the shout out gorgeous! First off I think your individual baklavas look gorgeous and the smaller size is a great idea. Baklava def needs balance with all that sweetness! Bravo!
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I am sure its delish , looks beautiful also…BUT this is too dry looking for baklava, i am turkish and this doesnt seem right sorry:( lacking syrup. Needs to be golden brown on top and more filling layers instead of one. What makes it dry is that u stacked so many empty layer of fillo together. My humble opinions.
OH! I love baklava, but have alsways been afraid-now I’m going to try to make it-thanks and looks delish!