Recipe contributed by Dhara Balwa
Baklava is a Mediterranean delicacy. It is one of the best desserts to end your Mediterranean meal or a delicious snack. I was first introduced to it on my stay in Sudan. Heavily coated in sugar/honey syrup and butter, it is sticky goodness. But too sweet for my liking. Ever since then, in the past 7 years, I have tried so many varieties.. from Egyptian, Saudi Arabian, Turkish, Lebanese, also a made in America brand available in Costco on which we settled.
But recently, a friend who has moved to Jordan gifted us a pack of Baklava from a very popular sweets chain called 'Habibah'. The best Baklava I have eaten so far! So light and perfectly sweetened. You taste the flaky layers, the nuts, the sugar and the essences. No ingredient overpowering the other. Honestly, its the balance that makes the best recipes. SO, my only disappointment---it was not enough. :) Of course we have requested(ordered?) our friend to bring it again the next time he visits us.
But me being the crazy person I am, my hunt for the copy cat recipe began. It would be a few months before he comes back and seriously I was craving it too much to wait! After so many search queries in google including the word Habibah and Amman, I ended with zero recipes. But that got me thinking that homemade anything is usually better than store bought. So, trying a baklava recipe at home should yield good results especially when I can control what I put in it. Generally, there are only handful of ingredients in a traditional recipe. And all the good ingredients should have a combined better result. It is simple math! Settling on combining three recipes that looked good, I decided to take a chance and try the tricky looking baklava at home. Thanks to the frozen section of Whole Foods where I got my Fillo/Phyllo dough sheets from Whole Foods whose listed ingredients mimic that of home-made sheets, it was an easy though time consuming task. The end result totally makes it worth though! Different from Habibah but equally delectable.
So, I have tried to do a step by step tutorial. The only steps I am missing is making of sugar syrup and adding it to the Baklava after they are out of oven as it is a quick process and any wasted second can change the quality of Baklava.
I have tried baklava with three kinds of nuts - Pistachio, Almonds, Pecans. Walnut and Pistachio are typically used but I have read even pine nuts and cashews are not unusual. So really! whatever you have on hand. Pistachio Baklava is the most famous though.
Without further Blah Blah Blah... here is the recipe! The pictures may not be doing justice to them. But they are delectable. Trust me!
Servings: 75-80 pieces
Prep time: 30-45 min Cook time: 35-40 min
Difficulty level: Medium
Ingredients:
1 pack Frozen Fillo Dough Sheets, typically contains 13x18 14-15 sheets
1 cup or 2 sticks Butter
2 cups Nuts
For sugar syrup:
1-1/2 cups Sugar
3/4 cup Water
1 tsp. Orange Blossom Water
1/2 tsp. Rose water
2 tsp. Lemon juice
Other special items:
9x13 Baking tray
Pastry brush
Method:
Before you start, this recipe requires a bit of planning. The fillo sheets have to be thawed overnight or say 8-10 hours in the refrigerator. Unlike puff pastry sheets that can be thawed outside at room temperature, these fillo sheets are very delicate and don't like the sudden temperature change. They become brittle and crack very easily.
1) Prepare the syrup. In a deep pot, mix the sugar and water and heat it on medium flame. Once the mixture comes to boil, add the lemon juice to help from getting the sugar crystalized and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it come to simmer.
Now in the Indian way, the syrup should be one string thick. Other way to know that the syrup is done is that when you put a spoon in the syrup and you take it out, the syrup should stick to the spoon.
It should take around 3-5 minutes. Once you achieve it, take off the heat immediately and add the rose and orange blossom water and give it a stir. Set aside.
2) Melt the butter. Meanwhile, line the baking tray with parchment paper.
3) While the butter is cooling a little, in a food processor, add the nuts of your choice and pulse them to coarse sandy texture. Transfer to a bowl and add 3-4 Tbsp. of the prepared sugar syrup and mix well in such a way that the nuts are a slight sticky mixture as shown below. I have used mixture of almonds and pecans.
4) So, once you have the thawed sheets ready, open the sheets up put the stack on the side next to the area you are going to prepare the baklava rolls. Cover the sheet stack all the time with a cloth to keep them from drying.
4) Gently pick up one sheet from the stack and lay it flat on the work surface with the 18 inch side being horizontal. Dip the pastry brush in the melted butter and brush the left half side of the sheet with butter. Fold the right half of the sheet over the buttered side. Brush the top layer with butter again.
5) Pick up another fillo sheet and match the end on top of the buttered sheet as shown below.
6) Again, butter the left half and fold over the right half. Lastly, butter the top layer of right half.
7) Leaving a space of around an inch on left edge of the sheet, make a line of the nut mixture.
8) Roll over the inch of the dough strip tightly over the nut mixture and keep rolling like a cigar. Butter the side the wrapping ends and lay that side down in the baking tray. Brush butter around at the rest of the roll.
9) Repeat the steps 4-8 till you are done with the sheets. At the end it looks like this. While half way through, start preheating the oven at 340 degrees F or around 175 degree C.
10) With a sharp knife, cut into small squares.
11) If the oven is now hot and ready, bake the baklava for 35-40 minutes. It's done when you see the Baklava a little cream color on top. If you would like golden-ish color, an egg wash may be the way to go.
12) Now, its time to act quickly. As soon as the Baklava is out of the oven, pour spoonfuls of syrup in between the cracks so the syrup can trickle down. What I do is spread a spoonful syrup between each horizontal row first and then go column wise. This make sure it is spread uniformly. Now I never been able to finish up my syrup. There is almost a 1/4 cup always remaining at the end. But that's because I prefer slightly sweetened Baklava. But, if you like it more sweeter, go ahead and finish the pouring all the syrup uniformly. Wait till the syrup is all soaked up. It should take between 15-20 min at the most.
13) Transfer to the container after it has cooled down completely. Enjoy this exotic dessert for up to 2 months when stored in refrigerator, if it lasts that long that is! :)
Baklava is a Mediterranean delicacy. It is one of the best desserts to end your Mediterranean meal or a delicious snack. I was first introduced to it on my stay in Sudan. Heavily coated in sugar/honey syrup and butter, it is sticky goodness. But too sweet for my liking. Ever since then, in the past 7 years, I have tried so many varieties.. from Egyptian, Saudi Arabian, Turkish, Lebanese, also a made in America brand available in Costco on which we settled.
But recently, a friend who has moved to Jordan gifted us a pack of Baklava from a very popular sweets chain called 'Habibah'. The best Baklava I have eaten so far! So light and perfectly sweetened. You taste the flaky layers, the nuts, the sugar and the essences. No ingredient overpowering the other. Honestly, its the balance that makes the best recipes. SO, my only disappointment---it was not enough. :) Of course we have requested(ordered?) our friend to bring it again the next time he visits us.
But me being the crazy person I am, my hunt for the copy cat recipe began. It would be a few months before he comes back and seriously I was craving it too much to wait! After so many search queries in google including the word Habibah and Amman, I ended with zero recipes. But that got me thinking that homemade anything is usually better than store bought. So, trying a baklava recipe at home should yield good results especially when I can control what I put in it. Generally, there are only handful of ingredients in a traditional recipe. And all the good ingredients should have a combined better result. It is simple math! Settling on combining three recipes that looked good, I decided to take a chance and try the tricky looking baklava at home. Thanks to the frozen section of Whole Foods where I got my Fillo/Phyllo dough sheets from Whole Foods whose listed ingredients mimic that of home-made sheets, it was an easy though time consuming task. The end result totally makes it worth though! Different from Habibah but equally delectable.
So, I have tried to do a step by step tutorial. The only steps I am missing is making of sugar syrup and adding it to the Baklava after they are out of oven as it is a quick process and any wasted second can change the quality of Baklava.
I have tried baklava with three kinds of nuts - Pistachio, Almonds, Pecans. Walnut and Pistachio are typically used but I have read even pine nuts and cashews are not unusual. So really! whatever you have on hand. Pistachio Baklava is the most famous though.
Without further Blah Blah Blah... here is the recipe! The pictures may not be doing justice to them. But they are delectable. Trust me!
 |
| Almond Pecan Baklava |
Prep time: 30-45 min Cook time: 35-40 min
Difficulty level: Medium
Ingredients:
1 pack Frozen Fillo Dough Sheets, typically contains 13x18 14-15 sheets
1 cup or 2 sticks Butter
2 cups Nuts
For sugar syrup:
1-1/2 cups Sugar
3/4 cup Water
1 tsp. Orange Blossom Water
1/2 tsp. Rose water
2 tsp. Lemon juice
Other special items:
9x13 Baking tray
Pastry brush
Method:
Before you start, this recipe requires a bit of planning. The fillo sheets have to be thawed overnight or say 8-10 hours in the refrigerator. Unlike puff pastry sheets that can be thawed outside at room temperature, these fillo sheets are very delicate and don't like the sudden temperature change. They become brittle and crack very easily.
1) Prepare the syrup. In a deep pot, mix the sugar and water and heat it on medium flame. Once the mixture comes to boil, add the lemon juice to help from getting the sugar crystalized and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it come to simmer.
Now in the Indian way, the syrup should be one string thick. Other way to know that the syrup is done is that when you put a spoon in the syrup and you take it out, the syrup should stick to the spoon.
It should take around 3-5 minutes. Once you achieve it, take off the heat immediately and add the rose and orange blossom water and give it a stir. Set aside.
2) Melt the butter. Meanwhile, line the baking tray with parchment paper.
3) While the butter is cooling a little, in a food processor, add the nuts of your choice and pulse them to coarse sandy texture. Transfer to a bowl and add 3-4 Tbsp. of the prepared sugar syrup and mix well in such a way that the nuts are a slight sticky mixture as shown below. I have used mixture of almonds and pecans.
4) So, once you have the thawed sheets ready, open the sheets up put the stack on the side next to the area you are going to prepare the baklava rolls. Cover the sheet stack all the time with a cloth to keep them from drying.
4) Gently pick up one sheet from the stack and lay it flat on the work surface with the 18 inch side being horizontal. Dip the pastry brush in the melted butter and brush the left half side of the sheet with butter. Fold the right half of the sheet over the buttered side. Brush the top layer with butter again.
5) Pick up another fillo sheet and match the end on top of the buttered sheet as shown below.
6) Again, butter the left half and fold over the right half. Lastly, butter the top layer of right half.
7) Leaving a space of around an inch on left edge of the sheet, make a line of the nut mixture.
8) Roll over the inch of the dough strip tightly over the nut mixture and keep rolling like a cigar. Butter the side the wrapping ends and lay that side down in the baking tray. Brush butter around at the rest of the roll.
9) Repeat the steps 4-8 till you are done with the sheets. At the end it looks like this. While half way through, start preheating the oven at 340 degrees F or around 175 degree C.
10) With a sharp knife, cut into small squares.
11) If the oven is now hot and ready, bake the baklava for 35-40 minutes. It's done when you see the Baklava a little cream color on top. If you would like golden-ish color, an egg wash may be the way to go.
12) Now, its time to act quickly. As soon as the Baklava is out of the oven, pour spoonfuls of syrup in between the cracks so the syrup can trickle down. What I do is spread a spoonful syrup between each horizontal row first and then go column wise. This make sure it is spread uniformly. Now I never been able to finish up my syrup. There is almost a 1/4 cup always remaining at the end. But that's because I prefer slightly sweetened Baklava. But, if you like it more sweeter, go ahead and finish the pouring all the syrup uniformly. Wait till the syrup is all soaked up. It should take between 15-20 min at the most.
13) Transfer to the container after it has cooled down completely. Enjoy this exotic dessert for up to 2 months when stored in refrigerator, if it lasts that long that is! :)
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