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| baklava - still warm from the oven |
It is super easy to make! Okay, so the ingredients can be a bit pricey when totaled up.
Preheat oven to 180 C
Ingredients
Filling:
250 grams pistachio nuts
250 grams walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Syrup:
1 cup or 250 grams of sugar
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of honey
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Blitz nuts in the food processor until finely chopped. Stir in the cinnamon and leave aside.
Pastry:
two packets of ready-made filo pastry - (get ready made unless you have an industrial sized kitchen and mad filo skillz. I do not have the scope or talent to make my own filo)
250g block of unsalted butter
Unroll the packets of filo sheets. Place the pan you're going to use on top of the filo and cut the sheets to fit.
Warm the butter in a small pan and then butter the bottom and sides of the pan with the melted butter using a pastry brush.
Lay the first sheet of filo in the pan and brush the sheet with more melted butter. Add the next sheet of filo pastry to the first one and butter it too. Keep adding layers of filo until you have at least 8 layers.
Sprinkle half the nut mixture on top of the buttered layers. Spread it all about until everything is all spread out evenly. I find giving the pan a gentle shake helps.
Another 8 layers of filo and melted butter on top of the nut mixture.
The remaining nuts are added and then . . . you guessed it. .. more filo layers. Finish with at least 8 more layers.
Put the sugar and water in a pan over low heat. Stir and heat until the sugar has melted. Simmer for at least 20 minutes to reduce the water content. At the end, add the honey and vanilla.
With a sharp knife, Cut the baklava into squares. and pop in the oven for 30 minutes or the top has started to turn golden.
I use the baking time to simmer the syrup (see? timing!)
When the baklava is done, remove from the oven and pour the syrup carefully over the baklava. Try to cover all the pieces.
When it was done, I found dust from the ground nuts in the food processor. I used that to decorate the pieces.
You're supposed to wait until it's cool to eat it. Who can do that? It is also best the next day . . . but I'll never know.
