Homemade Baklava

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4.90 from 19 votes

Crunchy filo pastry loaded with walnut, soft inside with just the right amount of sweetness

Prep Time30

Cook Time1

Total Time1 30

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Turkish

Servings:

Calories: 505kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

For the pastry

250 g filo pastry 1 pack of store bough filo pastry
80 g Unsalted butter melted
320 g walnut roast then pulse blend

For the syrup

180 g Water
100 g Granulated sugar
75 g Honey
1 Lemon juice approx juice of 1 lemon
1 Lemon zest do not grate, it should be in 3-4 pieces so that you can take them out from the syrup later
Cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon Rosewater only use pure 100% natural rosewater

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Start with roasting walnut in the oven for 5-10 minutes in 180 C / 356 F. Remove it from the oven after you start to feel a lovely nutty smell
Pulse bland walnut in food processor until very tiny pieces but do not ground it fully. Alternatively use a sharp knife
Melt butter in microwave for a minute or less
Continue with preparing the filo pastry and trim it to your baking pan. Mine is a 15 cm (6 inch) round cake pan
Place the filo pastry sheets in between to very lightly wet tea towel so they don´t dry out
Then it´s assembling time. You will want to take 2 filo sheets at the same time and then brush it with butter
As explained above at the tips section mine has 32 sheets of filo:
6 sheets at the bottom: 2 sheets then brush with butter and repeat 3x
20 sheets in the middle 2 sheets then brush with butter and 1 tablespoon walnut and repeat 10x
6 sheets on the top as per: 2 sheets then brush with butter and repeat 3x
After assembling place it into the fridge for 30 minutes
Preheat oven to 180 C / 356 F
When the dough cooled down, take a sharp knife and cut it into diamond shape
Bake for 45 minutes or until top golden brown
Toward the end of the baking time, prepare the syrup: Boil all the ingredients together except rosewater until slightly thickens (5-10 minutes depending on stove) and reaches syrup consistency. Remove from heat, remove lemon zest pieces, cinnamon stick and mix in rosewater
Pour syrup over the baklava as soon as it comes out of the oven. Let syrup sink into the baklava for a few hours
Serve on room temperature, it´s even better on the next day!

Nutrition