This homemade Baklava recipe is a sweet and rich dessert. It's made of layers of filo filled with a crescendo of nutty flavour containing pisctachios, walnuts and pecans. It's held together with honey making the texture flakey with a crisp top. This traditional dessert isn't too sweet and is great given as a gift.
10 ingredients5 steps
Egg-Free Recipes
Vegetarian
Method
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 180ºc /160°C (fan). Using a food processor Chop the nuts into small pieces using a food processor. Put them into a bowl and stir in the honey before setting aside.
Step 2
Melt the butter in a small bowl and using a pastry brush the inside of a 20 x 30cm non-stick tin with a good covering of melted butter. Cut the first pack of filo pastry sheets in half (so that they fit the tin). Put one sheet in the bottom of the tin and generously brush with the butter. Put another sheet on top and brush with butter again, keep layering like this until the whole pack is used up. Cover the filo with a clean damp tea towel whilst waiting to use if it starts to dry out.
Step 3
Spread the nut mixture over the pastry and press it down lightly and evenly. Open the other pack of filo, cut in half and continue the layering and buttering until all the filo is used up. Use a sharp knife to cut deep lines into the pastry to create a diamond pattern before putting into the pre-heated oven for 30 mins.
Step 4
After 30 minutes reduce the heat to 150C/130C fan and bake for a further 30-40 mins until the pastry is golden on top. To make the syrup put all the ingredients into a saucepan, except the orange zest and add 200ml water. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved then boil the mixture for 8-10 mins or until it has reduced to the consistency of runny honey. Remove from the heat and add in the orange zest.
Step 5
When the baklava comes out of the oven, pour the warm syrup over the top, it will completely soak in as it cools. Leave until cold before removing from the tin and serving.
