BAKLAVA

This free baklava recipe is by far the best I have ever tasted. Baklava is layers of phyllo pastry and nuts in a perfumed syrup.

Ingredients

100g walnuts
50g shelled pistachio nuts
50g almonds
5ml ground cinnamon
2ml mixed spice
50g castor sugar
500g packet phyllo pastry
170g melted butter

Syrup
250ml castor sugar
300ml water
juice of ½ lemon
15ml rose water
60ml honey

Method

• Grease a large baking tin.
• In food processor blitz the nuts until roughly chopped.
• Add the spices and castor sugar and mix.
• Cut the phyllo pastry sheets to the same size as the greased tin.
• Cover the pastry with a damp cloth to prevent it from drying out.
• Brush 10 sheets of pastry with melted butter and stack them in the bottom of the tin.
• Sprinkle generously with the nut mixture.
• Brush another 5 pastry sheets with butter and arrange them on top of the nut mixture.
• Sprinkle over more of the nut mixture.
• Repeat 3 times more with 5 sheets of pastry topped with the nut mixture, ending with pastry.
• Using a sharp knife cut a diamond pattern in the top layer of the baklava (don’t cut all the way through).
• Bake in a preheated oven at 170 °C for 40 minutes.

Syrup

• While the pastry is in the oven heat all the syrup ingredients except the honey, stirring continuously until the sugar has dissolved.
• Bring the mixture to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until syrupy.
• Add the honey. Pour the hot syrup over the baklava as soon as it comes out of the oven.
• Stand for at least 4 hours before serving.

Makes a large dish of baklava.