Baklava originated in Turkey, like it or not, but the Greeks have adopted it as their own and probably improved on it. As a matter of fact, something very similar to Baklava was originally made by the Assyrians who also used a mixture of dried fruit and pastry but put it together a little differently.  The earliest records find Baklava in Damascus where it was made with pistachio nuts and paper-thin pastry. Fortunately, despite the tension between Greeks and Turks, it seems that they have agreed on this one and the Greeks incorporated Baklava into their own menus, improving it with the pyllo pastry.

BAKLAVA

Ingredients

• 300 g phyllo pastry
• 250 g butter
• 4 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 50 g walnuts (chopped)
• 35 g pistachio nuts (chopped)

Syrup

• 250 g sugar
• 200 g honey
• 4 cloves
• 2 tsp cardamom seeds (remove the seeds from the pods)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 lemons, zest and juice
• water

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 180 C
• Mix nuts with breadcrumbs, sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
• Melt the butter gently and set aside.
• Grease a shallow baking pan that’s big enough for the pastry – always try and use a pastry friendly pan so that you can either use the pastry as is or, alternatively, cut the pastry in half.
• Always butter all the pastry sheets otherwise they will dry and crack.
• Take the first two buttered sheets and put in the pan – cover the upper layer with the nut filling and then place another sheet on top of that one so that you can cover it with filling.
• Repeat this process until you have used up all the layers with the exception of the final layer.
• After you have put the final layer on top, cut the diamond shape with a hot knife, sprinkled the pastry with water and bake in a hot oven for about 40 minutes until it is golden and crisp.
• Always keep an eye on your baking.

Syrup

• Boil everything together in 1½ liters of water over medium heat with the exception of the lemon juice.
• Simmer well for about 10 minutes and then turn down the heat and set aside so that you can remove the spices (with the exception of your cardamom seeds).
• Add the lemon juice and bring to the boil again, as soon as it boils up, remove from the heat and allow it to cool down.
• Pour the cooled down syrup over the baklava as soon as it comes out of the oven.
• The rule of thumb here is always: hot pastry, cool syrup or cool pastry, hot syrup – all this to avoid the pastry from becoming too soft.