The best baklava

Name: The best baklava
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 60
Ingredients: 100 g walnut pieces; 100 g blanched whole almonds; 125 g pistachio kernels; 40 g caster sugar; ¼ tsp table salt; 200 g ghee (see tip for alternative); 270 g packs filo pastry

Martha Collison's baklava is a Greek-inspired recipe – a golden tray of nutty, honey syrup-soaked pastry, often made with 33 filo layers to symbolise the 33 years of Jesus’s life, which is particularly apt as we near Easter.

0 out of 5 stars(0) Rate this recipe

Vegetarian

Makes60 small pieces
CourseDessert
Prepare30 mins
Cook35 mins
Total time1 hr 5 mins
Plussoaking

Please note, we take every care to ensure the product, allergen and recipe information displayed is correct. However, should a product be unavailable, alternatives may be displayed and/or a substitution provided. If you have an allergy or intolerance, please always check the product label before use.

100g walnut pieces
100g blanched whole almonds
125g pistachio kernels
40g caster sugar
¼ tsp table salt
200g ghee (see tip for alternative)
2 x 270g packs filo pastry

For the syrup

250g caster sugar
120g clear honey
1 cinnamon stick
1 unwaxed lemon
1 tbsp orange blossom water

Start by making the syrup. Put the caster sugar into a large saucepan with 250ml water, the honey and cinnamon stick. Peel 3 long strips of lemon zest using a peeler, add to the syrup and bring to a gentle simmer. Allow to bubble for 10 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by almost a third. Remove from the heat, discard the cinnamon stick and lemon zest, then stir in the orange blossom water and allow to cool to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC, gas mark 4. Put the walnuts, almonds and 110g pistachios into a food processor and blitz until the nuts resemble a chunky powder. Stir through the caster sugar and salt.
Melt the ghee in a small saucepan. Using a pastry brush, grease the bottom and sides of a 20x35cm baking tin. Unwrap the filo pastry, lay on a chopping board and cover with a damp clean tea towel to stop it drying or cracking. Trim the filo so that each sheet fits into the base of the tin.
Lay 1 filo sheet into the bottom of the tin and generously brush with ghee. Repeat the process with another 4 filo sheets, stacking them on top of each other in the tin.
Sprinkle half the nut mixture on the filo, then spread it to the edges of the tin. Top with 5 sheets of filo pastry, each brushed with ghee, then sprinkle the remaining nut mixture into the tin. Layer the 4 remaining sheets of filo into the tin as before. Brush the top with ghee and, using a sharp knife, slice the baklava into small bitesized diamond shapes.
Bake the baklava for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden and crisp. Remove from the oven and pour over the cool syrup, using a pastry brush to ensure it covers each piece. Slice through the cuts again so the syrup seeps into each layer
Blitz the remaining pistachios to a fine powder and, using a teaspoon, decorate each slice with a small amount of pistachio dust. Allow the baklava to sit in the tin undisturbed for 4-6 hours, or ideally overnight, to meld together and soak in the syrup. It will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Cook’s tip

Ghee or butter?
The best baklava is traditionally made with clarified butter, which is butter with the milk solids and excess water removed. Ghee is a clarified butter often used in Indian cookery, and it works perfectly in baklava. It has a higher smoke point than butter, so creates the crispest layers possible. You can opt to use butter, and the resulting baklava will be delicious, but not so crisp.

Adding salt
Baklava is extremely sweet, so aromatics and salt are important for creating a balance. Ghee is unsalted, so stir salt into the nuts or into the melted butter instead.

Hot syrup
In my mission to find the crispest baklava, I dug into the science, and temperature plays a big role in filo pastry retaining its crunch. Pouring cool syrup onto hot pastry (or viceversa) is the best way to saturate the baklava with syrup and maintain the integrity of the layers. Hot syrup onto hot pastry can lead to soggy baklava – so be patient and let it coo

Typical values per item when made using specific products in recipe