Traditional baklava

Traditional baklava
4.0/5 rating (13 votes)

  • Complexity: medium

Ingredients

  • For a 40 cm-diameter baking dish
  • phyllo dough: 900g
  • butter: 750g, melted
  • walnuts: 5 cups, ground
  • almonds: 5 cups, ground
  • sugar: 2 cups
  • ground cinnamon: 1 tablespoon
  • ground clove: 1 tablespoon
  • orange: 1 (the zest)
  • For the syrup and garnish:
  • sugar: 1 kg
  • water: 2½ cups
  • vanilla a bit
  • lemon peel: from 1 lemon
  • plenty of cloves for the garnish

Directions

  1. Mix the walnuts, almonds, sugar, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and orange zest in a large bowl. Butter the baking dish well and lay 3-4 sheets of phyllo dough, brushing each one with butter. Sprinkle some of the filling, then add another 2 sheets of buttered phyllo. Repeat this until you run out of filling. Finish with 3 buttered sheets of phyllo on top.

  2. Score the baklava into small diamond-shaped pieces and stick a clove in the middle of each one. Heat the remaining butter and pour on top. Bake in a medium heat (150-160oC) in the oven for 2-2 ½ hours until the top is golden brown.

  3. Mix all the ingredients (sugar, water, vanilla and lemon peel) for the syrup in a pot and boil. Remove the lemon peel and pour the syrup over the baklava while it is still hot.

Tips

Characteristic of the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, today popular in Near and Middle East and in the Balkans, baklava is considered to be the king of syrupy desserts. Phyllo dough, melted butter and nuts make a dreamy, crunchy sweet, very common in traditional Greek cuisine.