Baklava Recipe

I was typing this recipe up for a friend, so I figured I'd post it here! You may remember the Baklava I made in November. Enjoy!

Baklawa*

Recipe from Afghan Food and Cookery by Helen Saberi

Makes about 30 – enough for a large party.

Pastry:

• 1lb filo
• Vegetable oil
• 2 cups ground almonds (can sub. walnuts)
• 1 cup ground pistachio (this is a big part of the flavor, so try not to sub.)

Syrup:

• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp saffron (generous pinch)
• 2 tbsps rosewater (A neat variation might be orange blossom water though.)
• 1/2 tsp ground green cardamom seeds

Pastry:

• Preheat the oven to 325.
• Oil an approximately 14x8x2 baking tray (really you can do a lot of shapes).
• Reserve one quarter of the ground pistachio, and combine the rest of the nuts in a bowl.
• Lay down one layer of filo, brush it with oil, then layer the next sheet on top until you have 6 layers of filo. Now spread one third of the combined nuts on this layer.
• Repeat twice so you have 18 total layers and have used all the nuts except the quarter of reserved pistachio.
• Brush the top layer with oil.
• Cut strips about 1 ½ inches wide lengthwise, then cut about 45 degrees diagonally across these strips to make diamond shaped pieces.
• Bake for 35-45 minutes until golden.

Syrup:

Note that you may want to not start this until the pastry is done and cooled.

• Put the sugar, 1 cup of water, lemon juice, and saffron in a saucepan and bring to a boil slowly to dissolve the sugar.
• Boil gently until mixture becomes syrupy and sticks to the back of a spoon.
• Now add the cardamom and rosewater and simmer for another couple minutes.
• Remove from heat and keep warm.

Combining and Serving:

• Allow the pastry to cool to room temperature then carefully spoon the prepared syrup all over the pastry. (This reputedly avoids soggy Baklava, though I'm not 100% sure yet.)
• Add the reserved pistachio on top, let cool again, then serve with good tea.

*Note that Afghans pronounce it with a "w" sound instead of "v".

Baklava!

I had no studying to do...so I made baklava yesterday!

I had never made it before, and I used an Afghan recipe. Baklava is a common treat across central asia, the middle east, and of course, Greece. However, while it's exact origins are disputed, it is quite certain it developed somewhere in the Ottoman Empire, and has since become engrained into the cuisine of a dozen countries.

Afghans' variation on Baklava is, in my opinion, the most elegant I've tried. Rosewater, saffron, and cardamom? I just about melted reading the recipe.

Pistachio-Almond Baqlawa
topped with rosewater, saffron, and cardamom syrup, dusted with fresh ground pistachio and garnished with cinnamon




The whole shebang. It fed a happy Persian class, as well as myself and my roommates - with a couple pieces left over to delight my father with on Thanksgiving!