Description
The best homemade baklava you’ll ever have! I grew up eating this every Christmas because my oldest sister and mom would make enough to feed an army! Baklava is a sweet, rich, decadent dessert recipe made of layers of layers flaky filo dough, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with a honey syrup.
Ingredients
Scale
Filling
- 1 box phyllo pastry sheets
- 1&½ sticks melted butter 1&½ cup
- 2 cups walnuts
- 1 cup almonds
- ⅓ cup pistachios extra for garnish
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp salt
Syrup
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ⅔ cup water
- ¼ cup honey
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- 2 cloves
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 325°F. Melt the butter in sauce pan, its okay if the butter gets a bit brown, it will add extra nutty taste.
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Place the walnuts and almonds into the food processor and pulse until you have a coarse crumble, add the pistachios and pulse one more time. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the orange zest, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and 4 tbsp of the melted butter. Mix well.
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Brush a baking tray well with melted butter. Line the pan with one sheet of phyllo and brush with melted butter. Continue in this way with 10 more sheets of phyllo, buttering each layer well.
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Spoon the nut mixture over the top (DO NOT PRESS DOWN), then top with the rest of the phyllo sheets, buttering generously as you layer them.
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Use a very sharp knife to cut through the layers to make diamond shapes. Bake for 30-40 mins.
Syrup
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In a saucepan, add the sugar, honey, water, lemon juice and cloves. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for about 10 minutes, until its syrupy. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
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When the baklava is golden brown, remove from the oven. Once it has come to temperature, pour the syrup over the top of the baklava, and put back in the oven for 3-5 minutes. Garnish with more crushed pistachios.
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Remove and leave to cool completely, so the syrup can be absorbed. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Please make sure phyllo pastry is thawed out and at room temp.
- Phyllo dough dries out almost instantly so it’s extremely important to keep the unused sheets with a damp (not wet) towel.
- I used a 9×13 baking dish.
- Each layer should have 8-10 phyllo sheets.
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 40
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: baklava
Keywords: Mediterranean, middleeastern
