Baklava

Hmm… honey…

A couple of years ago, I went on a small vacation to Greece. We ate out every day and one time, I had this dessert called ‘baklava’. I’d never heard of it before, but wanted to try it. Oh my was that a good choice! So sweet and moist, I loved it!

Back home, I kept my eyes open for baklava at restaurants and in shops. I think I found it in the store once or twice, but it never tasted quite the same. I looked for recipes, but they all seemed so difficult back then.

A while ago, I ran into a baklava recipe again and decided this was the time I had to try and make it myself. I ended up not following the original recipe, because the measurements seemed off to me and I didn’t have half of the ingredients. Instead, I made my own and used the things I did have. It turned out really well, so now I want to share my recipe with you!

Ingredients:
– 200g Filo pastry
– 200g Walnuts
– 2 Tsp Cinnamon
– 1/2 Tsp Cardamom
– Pinch of salt
– 210g Honey
– 120ml Water
– 50g Melted butter
– 1 Mandarin orange

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Put the walnuts, 1 tsp cinnamon, cardamom and salt in a food processor and mix untill you have small crumbles.
3. Add 4 Layers of filo pastry to an oven dish. Brush the top with butter. Sprinkle with about 1/4 of the walnut mixture.
4. Add another 3-4 layers of filo pastry, brush with butter and sprinkle with walnut. Continue untill you have 3-4 layers of filo pastry left (and make sure to finish your walnut mix before that).
5. Top off with the last of the filo pastry, brush with butter and put this in the oven for 20 minutes.
6. Take out of the oven and cut into squares.
7. Put in the oven for another 20 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, Put the honey, water and 1 tsp of cinnamon in a small pan. Cut the mandarin in two and squeeze out the juice into the pan.
9. Bring it all to a boil and let this simmer for 3-4 minutes.
10. Take the dish out of the oven and pour the hot syrup over the dish evenly.
11. Let the baklava cool off completely at room temperature (without cover) in about 8 hours or let it sit untill the next day.

P.S. My filo pastry was quite thick. If yours is very thin, you might want to double the layers.

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