Chef John's Baklava recipe

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Ingredients

2 ½ cups walnut halves
1 cup shelled pistachios
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
12 sheets phyllo dough, thawed if frozen
1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup water
¼ cup honey
3 whole cloves
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons orange flower water

Nutrition Info

466.2 calories
carbohydrate: 47.4 g
cholesterol: 20.3 mg
fat: 29.8 g
fiber: 3.3 g
protein: 7.5 g
saturatedFat: 7.2 g
servingSize: -
sodium: 138.4 mg
sugar: 32.3 g
transFat: : -
unsaturatedFat: : -

Directions

  1. Place walnuts, pistachios, and cinnamon in bowl of a food processor. Pulse on and off until mixture is chopped but not too fine.

  2. Brush bottom of 9-inch round baking pan with melted butter. Place one round of phyllo dough in the pan, add a second round of dough. Drip about 1 tablespoon of melted butter over the top. Add 2 more sheets and drizzle with butter. Add 2 more sheets and drip with butter creating 6 layers for the bottom. (While you work keep the phyllo sheets covered with a damp, nearly dry, cotton towel to keep dough from drying out.)

  3. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the nut mixture. Top with a sheet of phyllo and drip with melted butter, repeat with 1 more sheet of filo. Add another 1/3 of the nut mixture.

  4. Place another sheet of phyllo on the nuts, drip with butter. Top with another sheet and drip with butter. Add the remaining nut mixture.

  5. Top with 2 sheets of phyllo, drip with butter. Add 2 more sheets, drip with butter. Top with the last 2 sheets and drizzle generously with the remaining butter. Cover pan with plastic and refrigerate until completely chilled, about 1 hour.

  6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

  7. Cut baklava into about 12 diamond-shaped pieces approximately the same size.

  8. Bake in preheated oven until browned and crisp, about an hour.

  9. Place sugar, honey, and cloves in a saucepan. Pour in water. Place pan over medium-high heat and whisk to combine. Bring to a boil, remove from heat. Whisk in vanilla and orange blossom water.

  10. After baklava has rested 5 minutes, ladle syrup over the top. Cool down to room temperature before serving.

Recipe Yield

1 (9-inch) round

Recipe Note

I tend to enjoy a generous ratio between nuts and pastry, as that makes me feel a little bit better about the copious amounts of sugar in this, but above and beyond that, I think this approach produces the best texture. You can use as many layers of filo as you want, but be careful, since too many may not cook through, and the only way to mess this up is to undercook the dough. The top and bottom layers need to dry out, and thoroughly crisp up, otherwise, once the syrup gets ladled over, you'll have a soggy mess.

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