Yummy Baklava and my 100th post…

Posted On January 20, 2013

I am very happy to post this sweet as my 100th post.  One of the sweets, which I have underestimated by its simple ingredients and preparation method until I tasted it the first time. A colleague of mine, who is from Turkey, had brought some authentic Baklava to office.  As I tasted, I felt the crispy sweet & buttery layered sheets with the richness of crunchy nuts(Walnuts). I could not stop going for the next one. Since then, I have been trying to find out the filo pastry sheets from German supermarkets and couldn’t find them on. So, I  tried to make it with ready made Puff pastry and with Spring roll pastry, but it was not anywhere near to the original taste.

After a long time, I was lucky to find it in one of the Turkish markets from the next city. I also got some good quality of de-skinned Pistachios, which is one of the key ingredients for the overall taste.

The procedure for making it is very simple. Apply melted butter on every layer of sheets and lay the coarsely crushed nuts in between one of the bottom layers. Bake it until golden brown and finish it by pouring with sugar or Honey sirup afterward.

We enjoyed making it with 24 layers and Riya helped me in buttering the layers.

Ingredients:

1. Filo Pastry sheets – 1 packet ( I used 450 gms, approx 60*60 of 12 sheets)
2. Butter – 250 gms
3. Sugar – 2 cups
4. Lemon juice- few drops
5. Almonds -Â blanched, dry and chopped finely
6. Pistachios-blanched, dry and chopped or coarsely ground
7. Flavoring – any flavoring of your choice (optional)

Method:

1. First, make the sugar syrup. Add Sugar with a cup of water and boil for 15-20 mins. Add a few drops of lemon juice.

2. While the sugar syrup is getting ready, prepare the tray for baking baklava sheets. Lay the sheets in a tray such that it fits in all the sides of the tray. I had 12 long sheets which I had cut it  and used as 24 sheets, which was fitting my tray and as well. 12 sheet layered Baklava was anyway was too thin.

3. Melt the Butter. Just as it melts into liquid, switch off the heat. Butter the tray, lay the first sheet, butter it, lay the second sheet and butter it, and continue until 8 layers and now fill in the nuts.

4. The nuts filling should be sweet, so add either couple of spoons of sugar syrup or sugar to the nuts. (Nuts and sugar can be ground together and used for garnishing) and fill in the top of the 8th layer. One can choose in which layer to add the filling. I have chosen the 8th layer as the sweet will have good stability to hold the nuts. I used Pistachios for half of the layer and Almonds for the other half.

5. Continue layering and applying butter till you reach the last sheet.

6. Before putting the tray in the oven, use a sharp knife to cut the layered sheets into small pieces. Smaller shapes let sugar syrup to soak-in nicely at step 8.

7. Preheat the oven for 170C and bake it for 30-35 mins at 150C in the middle rack of the oven. You could see the Baklava pieces dance with melting butter and turn light  brown on the top.

8. Remove from the oven and pour the sugar syrup all over while the baked baklava is hot. The Sugar sirup can be medium hot while pouring.

9. Leave for it for a few hours to let the Baklava absorb the sugar syrup. Serve it on a plate with ground nuts on top. 

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