About
Baklawa is a rich filo and nut pastry that is smothered in syrup or honey. It’s so good that every country wants to claim it as their own, but suffice to say that it is made in MENA, Turkey, Southeast Europe, and Central Asia.
Here’s my Lebanese style baklawa where a rose and orange blossom water based syrup is used instead of honey! I put a little spin on things by replacing the traditonal walnut or pistachio filling with the nut from the American south, pecans.
Ingredients
For Syrup
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1⁄2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 3⁄4 teaspoon orange blossom water
- 3⁄4 teaspoon rose water
For Filling
- 1⁄2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg white (optional)
- 1 tablespoon rose water
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon (optional)
- 2-3 cups unsalted pecans (or pistachios, walnuts)
- 1 teaspoon rose water
For Baklawa
- 1 lb of filo dough (24 sheets)
- 8 oz of ghee, melted
Instructions
Making Syrup
1. In the small saucepan, combine together the sugar, water, and squeeze of lemon juice. Set on the stove top over medium high heat.
2. Bring to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for no longer than 10 minutes.
3. Stir in orange blossom and rose water.
4. Transfer to jar and chill in fridge.
Making Filling
1. Put your nuts and sugar in the bowl of your food processor and pulse about 5 times. You want to avoid having powdery nuts (unless that’s what you want). Move to mixing bowl.
2. Combine chopped nuts with cinnamon, rosewater, and egg white. Egg white helps keep the filling stick together! Set aside.
Making Baklawa
1. Place your filo dough in the refrigerator to defrost 24 hours ahead of time.
2. Heat oven to 350F.
3. Unroll your defrosted filo sheets on a smooth surface.
4. Brush the bottom and sides of your rimmed sheet pan (I used an 8” pan) with melted ghee.
5. Peel off a sheet of filo and lay it on the bottom of your buttered pan. If tearing occurs, just put it back together and don’t fret!
6. Brush some melted ghee on the surface of your first sheet.
7. Lay another sheet of filo and brush ghee on the surface. Continue doing this until you have layed down approximately half of your sheets.
8. Spread the nuts over your stacked filo sheets in one even layer. Lightly sprinkle some ghee on the nuts.
9. Lay another sheet of filo on top of the nuts, brush with ghee and continue the process until you run out of sheets.
10. Brush the top layer of your filo sheet with ghee.
11. Using the tip of a very sharp knife, cut the baklawa into diamonds or triangles.
12. Bake until golden (45-55 minutes depending on your oven).
13. Remove the pan from the oven and immediately pour the chilled syrup evenly over the baklawa. Garnish with finely chopped pistachios. Let the baklawa cool.
14. Enjoy!
