
Baklava
Try this delicious almond and pistachio baklava recipe for a tasty treat. Made with Jus-Rol filo pastry, this is a truly indulgent dessert.
Quick Stats
Moderate
10 Servings
35 minutes bake time
Baklava
Try this delicious almond and pistachio baklava recipe for a tasty treat. Made with Jus-Rol filo pastry, this is a truly indulgent dessert.
Ingredients
- 1 x 270 g Jus-Rol filo pastry sheets (unwrap and keep under a damp tea-towel until ready to use)
- 150 g butter, melted
- 100 g pistachios, shelled
- 100 g walnuts, shelled
- 100 g blanched almonds
- 2 tbsp Granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cardamom, or 6 pods, seeds removed and ground
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
For the syrup
- 300 g Granulated sugar
- 300 ml water
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp orange blossom water (optional)
Equipment required
- Bowl
- Baking Tin
Techniques Used
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How to Make Baklava
How to Make Baklava
- Open out the defrosted filo sheets and have ready an ovenproof dish or tin – lightly greased with melted butter. Lightly brush the top sheet of pastry with butter.
- Lay the sheet in base of tin – allowing it to hang over the sides.
- Brush a second sheet and lay it in the tin at right angles to the first sheet.
- Spoon half the filling mixture onto the pastry and spread evenly over base.
- Fold in excess overhanging pastry to cover filling.
- Lightly brush with butter.
- With a further two sheets of pastry repeat the above process.
- Spoon remaining filling over pastry and level, and again fold in excess pastry and brush with melted butter.
- Lightly brush and fold or pleat remaining pastry sheets – one at a time, over the filling – but with the excess at the sides still overlapping the edges.
- Tuck in the excess pastry down around the sides.
- With a sharp knife make parallel cuts across the baklava – cutting right down to the base.
- Turn the tin and make further cuts so that the pastry is cut in diamond shapes as shown.
- Bake at 190ºC (170ºC for fan assisted ) / 375ºF /Gas M. 5 for approx 20 minutes until pastry is golden brown.
- Remove from oven and immediately pour over the cold syrup – allow to stand and cool before serving.
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How to Handle Filo Pastry
How to Handle Filo Pastry
- Thaw filo pastry in its wrapping and remove from the packaging when ready to use.
- Unfold sheets and lay them in a stack on a large piece of cling film.
- Cover stack with a second piece of cling film.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160C in a fan oven) Gas 4.
- To make the syrup, heat the sugar, water, lemon juice and orange blossom water in a small, heavy-based saucepan and cook over a medium heat for approximately 15 minutes, until the sugar has melted and a syrup has reduced by 1/3 rd, set aside to cool.
- Grease a 17cm x 28cm (11in x 7in) baking tray with butter.
- Place the nuts in a blender and blitz until coarse. Transfer to a bowl with the sugar and spice.
- Lay 2 sheets of filo pastry, one at a time, into the tray, brushing each sheet with butter before adding the next. Pour half the nut mixture on top.
- Layer up the next 2 sheets, brushing each sheet with butter, as before. Top with the remaining nut mixture and finally, top with the remaining 2 sheets of filo.
- Using a sharp knife, cut a criss-cross (diamond) pattern into the top layers of the pastry.
- Place in a preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes, decrease the temperature to 150C/Gas 2 and cook for a further 30 minutes, or until the pastry is slightly puffed and golden on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Pour half of the cooled syrup over the baklava and allow to stand for 5 minutes before pouring over the remaining syrup. Leave for a further 10-15 minutes before cutting into small diamond-shaped pieces.