Here’s everything you need to make this sweet, nutty baklava at home. We recommend making this recipe when you have a day to set aside for it, because you’re going to want to take your time with this one!
Step 1: Phyllo Dough
You can make it…. its a nightmare best left to machines and professional chefs
Frozen phyllo is fine. The fact we are making a fancy desert that’s supposed to be pretty means we get to really test our phyllo handling skills.
The most important tool to this is a good pastry brush. A small brush just makes this HARD. you want a 1″ or wider pastry brush.
Before shopping know the size of your pan, Phyllo comes in different sizes and you may need to trim the sheets to size. Knowing your pan size can save effort, I happen to have a 9×13 and phyllo that fits it. The other common size I see is 13×18 so you have to cut the sheets in half.
When shopping for the dough its important the box shows no signs of damage. Physical dents may indicate you have broken sheets inside the box, any sign of water damage means the dough may have been allowed to thaw uncontrolled and the edges have likely turned into a gluey mass then refrozen. This happens more than you expect, phyllo is a low turnover product in many stores.
The proper thawing of the phyllo is pretty critical to success in its use. in my fridge its about 18 hours to thaw, and 24 hours before its too soft. on my counter its 4-6 hours thawing and 9-10 hours before its too warm. Which all depends on the ambient temp.
So you need to plan ahead on baklava or spanikopita baking days.
Not only is phyllo sensitive to temperature its moisture/humidity sensitive. If left exposed on the counter it will dry out in few minutes and turn into brittle paper. If its too damp or warm it will glue itself to the layer below it.
When working with phyllo I use a dampened towel, and dry paper towels to to manage my humidity.
I expose the top surface, add a single layer of paper towel and then drape a damp towel over it. With my average humidity I end up with the damp towel on only about 1/2 the time.
Step 2: Ingredients
1 pack frozen phyllo dough (you will probably only be using 1 of the 2 sleeves for this)
3-4 cups (720-960ml) or 1lb (900g) raw nuts (I use almond, sometimes a mix of almond and walnut) Common nuts are almond, walnut, pistachio, cashew
1/2 cup (118ml) clarified melted butter
3/4 tsp ground Cinnamon (you should not quite be able to identify this in the raw mix)
1/4 tsp ground Clove (you should just be able to tell there’s clove)
1 cup (236ml) white sugar
For the syrup
1 cups (236ml) white sugar
4oz(118ml) honey (you can exchange this for 1/2 cup sugar)
Pick some of the following I typically use the * marked
10-15 cardamom pods* (Less optional than the rest, you should try this)
1 Tbsp lemon juice*
1/8-1/4 Orange water* or rose water
1/2 Tbsp Citrus zest, I would love to try this with Buddha’s hand zest
A note about nuts
The spices are pretty aggressive most nut flavors are going to get lost, you can easily turn this into a 50$ tray of dessert and not really be able to tell the difference between the 50$ macadamia or the 20$ almond.
Almonds are not only the cheapest (besides peanut) around here I feel they are the most traditional, being native to the locale and all.
Step 3: Clarify Butter
Basic clarification
while you will use less than 1/2 a cup if your doing it right, below a certain volume its hard to work with
over medium heat
Melt 3/4-1 cup unsalted butter in a pan
bring to a simmer/low boil
allow to simmer until it slows drastically
at this point there will be yellow to brown grit at the bottom of the pan
Pour through cheese cloth or into a liquid measuring cup (decant leaving as much solid in the pan as possible)
Set aside.
You can do this per use, or prepare ahead of time. Clarified butter is longer lasting product than butter as the things that go rancid, water and milk solids have been (mostly) removed.
It will keep for 6 months in the fridge.
Now it’s time to make the nut mix. ( next page )
