Making baklava is easy, the recipe is forgiving, and some ingredients are flexible or adjustable, but it is easy to also mess it up, as I have done many times.
Yiayia Koula always used almonds in her baklava, so the recipe below is based on these nuts, as this is what we grew accustomed to. However, she grew up having it made with walnuts which were plentiful around the village of Kerasies in the mountains of Fokida. Baklava would have been a luxurious Christmas treat in those pre-war years when she was a young child. The nuts could be gathered for free, but the butter must have been dear; and the filo would have been rolled by hand.
Use nuts that you like and are readily available. Almonds are the most reliable and widely available. Walnuts are tasty, but can go rancid and the quality varies more. Many people think pistachios are the most classic, but their quality varies widely so can be disappointing. Mixing nuts is also a good option, and often we will make half almond, half walnut.
Filo pastry sheets are readily available most places now, typically frozen. Although the packages are a standard 454 g / 1 lb size, the number of sheets varies. Try to buy the thin sheets, with a package containing about 18 sheets, which is ideal and it give more opportunity for layering with butter. In any case, use about 1/3 in the base, save about 1/3 for the top, and use remainder in the middle layers.
Baklava is thus just layers of butter and nuts, doused with a sugar-honey syrup. The biggest warning is to make sure the base and the syrup are opposite temperatures! Warm on warm results in a mushy mess, and cool on cool leaves the pastry dry. It’s easiest to make the syrup hours earlier, or even the night before, and let it cool completely before adding it to the base.
Ingredients
- 1 lb package of filo pastry
- 1 lb almonds, blanched
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- Syrup (see below)
- 1 lb butter, melted
- Whole cloves, a fistful approximately
Ingredients – Syrup
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 3 lemon slices
- 3/4 cup Greek honey
Directions – The Syrup
- Combine ingredients in small saucepan.
- Simmer till sugar dissolves, bring to a boil, and remove from heat.
- Add honey and stir to blend.
- Cool completely before using, or can be made the night before.
Directions – The Base
- Toast the nuts in a single layer in the over until aromatic and lightly brown. Watch like a hawk to not burn them!
- Chop nuts finely.
- Mix nuts with sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves; set aside.
- Melt butter; set aside.
- Open the filo package, unroll and cover sheets with a clean tea towel to prevent them from drying out too quickly. They do get crispy surprisingly quickly, depending on the humidity in your kitchen, become brittle and very difficult even impossible to work with. Work quickly, and keep covered if they seem to be drying.
- Use an approximately 11″x13″ baking tin, just a bit smaller than the filo sheets themselves.
- Generously brush melted butter all over the bottom of the tin and up the sides.
- Base layer: Layer 6 sheets of filo to form the base, sprinkling each sheet generously with butter. Sprinkling is better than brushing as it keeps the sheets flakier.
- Keep aside 6 sheets to form the top of your baklava. Hopefully, you will have about 6 sheets left for the middle of the baklava; these will be layered with the nuts. * If you don’t have enough sheets, re-distribute to use 1/3 of the sheets for bottom, top and middle.
- Middle nutty layers: Sprinkle filo sheet generously with butter, then sprinkle handfuls of nut mixture evenly. Try to use approximately equal amounts of nuts per layer.
- Top layer: Use the remaining ~6 filo sheets to form the top, sprinkling butter between each.
- Score the top of the assembled baklava longitudinally, then diagonally. We always make bite-sized diamond shapes, as they are easier to eat. Cut through the top layers of filo, but not all they way through to the bottom (cutting will be completed after syrup is added).
- Insert a whole clove into each diamond.
- Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes; then lower temperature to 300 F and bake approximately 45-60 min further. Check regularly and basically it is ready when the colour is a lovely golden brown.
- Remove from over, and immediately pour the fully cooled syrup all over.
- Let baklava rest at room temperature until fully cool. Cut through to the bottom as you wish to serve it. Enjoy!
Notes
- Storage: We tend to leave the baklava in the pan, covering with foil. It is tastiest the next day, and keeps several days at room temperature. Storing in a sealed container makes the baklava soft and mushy, so it is best to let it breathe a bit.
- Nuts: All almonds; half almonds, half walnuts; or use pistachios or experiment. Toast them first, and then shop to a nice crispy size.
- Bread crumbs are not essential, just amends the texture nicely; so, it is up to you.
