All of the butter, all of the sugar, all of the yum.
Ingredients
For the baklava:
200g unsalted butter
2 x packs fresh filo (don’t use the frozen stuff)
200g pistachios
50g walnuts
50g pecans
3tbsp honey
For the syrup:
250g caster sugar
50g honey
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
Method
- Heat oven to 180C and grease a 9″ square tin.
- Chop all of the nuts until tiny – by all means use a processor, but don’t whiz them into a paste. Mix the honey into the nuts with a pinch of salt and set to one side.
- Melt the butter over a low heat & keep warm.
- Begin construction by cutting the pastry so that it fits into the tin, then put the first piece(s) into the greased tin so it’s covered in a single thickness layer.
- Brush with melted butter.
- Repeat with another layer of pastry & butter.
- Repeat repeat repeat. Its absolutely fine to use small pieces of pastry to make up the tin, but make sure you get butter between each and every piece, and aim to keep the pastry relatively level as it builds up.
- After finishing one pack of pastry, cover with the nut mixture, press down lightly, then start layering again with the second pack.
- Pour any remaining butter over the top, then carefully cut into diamonds or squares.
- Bake for 20 mins, then reduce heat to 140C for a further 45 minutes until golden. Cover with a tin foil hat if it starts to brown too much.
- While the baklava is cooking, melt all of the syrup ingredients with 200ml water, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then boil for 10 minutes to reduce and thicken.
- Pour the syrup over the baklava when just out of the oven.
- Leave to cool completely before diving in.
From My Kitchen 