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Baklava
Updated Oct. 11, 2023
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- Total Time
- 2 hours and 30 minutes, plus at least 4 hours resting
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 2 hours and 20 minutes, plus at least 4 hours resting
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
- ¾cup/255 grams honey
- 1strip lemon peel
- 1 to 2tablespoons orange blossom water (optional), to taste
- 1pound frozen phyllo (2 sleeves), thawed (see Tip)
- 1pound shelled walnuts (or a mix of walnuts, pistachios and almonds)
- ¼cup/50 grams granulated sugar
- 2teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1cup/226 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks)
For the Honey Syrup
For the Pastry and Filling
Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the honey syrup: In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup water with the sugar and honey. Bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low, add the lemon peel and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the syrup thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 15 minutes. Remove and discard the lemon peel, then stir in the orange blossom water (if using). Set syrup aside to cool completely, then transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
- Step 2
About 20 minutes before assembling the baklava, remove the thawed phyllo from the refrigerator to bring it to room temperature. (Do not remove the phyllo from its wrapped packaging until ready to use or it will dry out.)
- Step 3
Prepare the filling: Place half the walnuts in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to a medium bowl and repeat with the remaining walnuts. Mix the sugar and cinnamon into the walnuts.
- Step 4
Heat oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the center position. Melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly. Lightly dampen a clean kitchen towel or a couple of layers of paper towels to cover the phyllo and keep it moist.
- Step 5
Assemble the baklava: Generously brush the bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with some of the melted butter. Open 1 sleeve of phyllo and carefully unroll it. Place the baking dish on top of the phyllo and, with a sharp knife or kitchen shears, trim the phyllo as needed to fit the baking dish. Cover the phyllo immediately with the damp towel.
- Step 6
Lay 2 phyllo sheets on the bottom of the baking dish. Generously brush the top layer with the melted butter. Lay another 2 sheets on top and brush with more butter, repeating until the first sleeve of dough is used and covering the unused sheets with the damp towel in between layering. (It’s OK if a little dough tears.)
- Step 7
Using a large spoon, scatter the chopped nuts evenly across the top and gently pack it down. Open the second sleeve of phyllo and trim as needed. Repeat layering as before, with 2 sheets of phyllo and butter, on top of the nuts, until all the dough has been used.
- Step 8
Fill a small bowl with cold water. Using the tip of a very sharp knife (a serrated knife works well), first score the pastry as a guide. Make 6 to 7 even cuts along the length of the short side of the pan (each about 1½ to 2 inches apart, depending on how large you’d like the baklava pieces). Next, make diagonal cuts, about 1 inch apart, for diamond shapes. (Alternatively, you can simply cut the baklava into squares.) After the pastry is scored, repeat the cuts, this time slicing right through to the bottom of the pan so each piece can be easily removed once baked and cooled. (To help hold down the dough while cutting, dip your fingertips opposite of your slicing hand into the bowl of cold water.)
- Step 9
Bake until the baklava is deeply golden, 35 to 50 minutes, rotating the baking dish halfway. Starting at the 35-minute mark, check on the baklava every 5 minutes to monitor doneness.
- Step 10
Remove from the oven and immediately pour the cold syrup evenly over the hot baklava, including the corners. Set aside to cool completely before the pieces are removed from the pan. Baklava is best served after it has rested and the syrup has been fully absorbed, 4 to 6 hours. Cover and store at room temperature for 3 days, after which you can transfer to the fridge for up to 1 week.
- To thaw frozen phyllo, remove the rolls from the box but keep them in their plastic sleeves. Place in the refrigerator overnight. Alternatively, you can thaw at room temperature according to package instructions.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
A note to over-ambitious bakers like myself: it is not at all worth it to make your own phyllo dough. It’s nothing but an all-day, boring, heavy kitchen labor. And the homemade isn’t as ideal as the store-bought because the homemade is inevitably thicker, irregular edges, etc. Love yourself and buy the dough.
I lay down about one third of the phyllo on the bottom of the pan and put half the nut and sugar mix on that. Then I add the second third of phyllo and then add the remaining sugar and nut mix. Then I add the remaining phyllo on top. Then I cut the diamonds. Then I pour a melted pound of unsalted butter over the lot and bake it. This has worked for me since 1975. Painting individual leaves of phyllo, yeah, right.
This recipe is enhanced with the addition of a cinnamon stick in the syrup, and some cloves, mace, allspice and nutmeg to the filling. In addition, I use some Graham cracker crumbs in the filling to give it some body. Also, you can make with olive oil instead of butter for what Greeks call a ‘Lenten’ version. It’s not quite vegan, but presumably one could make a honey free syrup (agave maybe?) for a full vegan alternative.
I've never known any better, so I make the syrup while the baklava is baking, and I pour it, still quite warm, onto the just-baked baklava, and then let it sit and soak in. Seems fine. I'm curious to know why the author feels it's important to chill the syrup before using it.
Yes to hot syrup!
When using phyllo Dong, make sure it is at room temp. Unroll slowly and backwards so that the dough is on the wet cloth as you unroll it
2 tablespoons of orange blossom water would turn this into soap! Start with 1 teaspoon and go up from there. Next time I will try setting aside a half cup of pistachios to really blend together into an almost nut butter to keep the pistachio layers together.
This is the “sandwich” approach often used for baklava where the entire nut mixture is sandwiched between two large sections of phyllo. The alternative is to drop four or five buttered layers as a base (and as a top) but to make the middle layer by layer sprinkled lightly with the nut mixture after each buttered sheet of phyllo. It makes for amazing texture. Also, be careful not to pulverize the nuts or it becomes a gummy filling. I still chop walnuts by hand as did all the Greek grandmas!
In my family we do a few things differently. First we leave the bottom layer of the phyllo uncut while scoring the upper layers so that the syrup, when poured hot, soaks into the upper layers. We don't use orange water or rose water which I think is more Lebanese. After cutting the diagonals we put a clove bud in the center of each diamond which is admittedly a bit finicky but looks nice and imparts a nice flavor. We also use clove and lemon juice in the syrup.
This is a lovely recipe. I only had half the amount of pastry and it still worked. Admittedly it was probably falling apart more than it should have hit no one cared. It tasted great. AND I did not cool the syrup.
So many different traditions, here… handed down to me were key steps of: brush every layer — not too bad if two people do this together; a 4” pastry brush is a modest investment; clarify the butter to avoid burnt bitter bits of solids on top; cut before and after baking - easier to serve; syrup only after everything has cooled if you prefer a more pastry-like flaky outcome; and… a full pound of butter for one package of phyllo; simple syrup, no honey.
I've been making Paklava (Armenian) since I was young and the one thing that I don't see mentioned is when you melt your butter, the foam that forms is what we always skimmed off and used on the bottom of the pan. The rest will be the nice clear butter that you pour over the completed and cut paklava before you bake it-no brushing. And I was always taught Either room temp syrup on hot paklava or hot syrup on cooled paklava. I tell my friends ..the cutting is the hardest part.
I agree with the warm/hot syrup. My recipe uses 1.5 cups sugar and 3/4 cup water with the honey and a slice of lemon. No sugar in the nuts, with clove and nutmeg too. I do 10 sheets each on the bottom and top with 4-5 layers of the nuts and two sheets between each. I brush every layer with butter, just like my mom, aunt, and YiaYia’s did. Some extra work, but everyone raves about it.
The Turkish version I was taught uses sugar syrup (no honey) and mixes olive oil and melted butter to coat every sheet of yufka (Turkish equivalent of phyllo). Admittedly, I have to halve the amount of sugar, as I do not share the *insanely* sweet Turkish tooth. But with a cup of Turkish coffee, there is nothing better. I shall try this two-sheet version next weekend . . .
I’m not going to make baklava, but I am going to make the syrup to roast Bartlett pears, copying a restaurant dessert I had (roasted pears with crème fraiche ice cream and toasted almonds). I frequently do this with NYT recipes, using one element in a different way.
VERY lightly spritz a tea towel or flour sack towel with water and keep the phyllo covered with that in between laying the layers. If the phyllo dries out, which it otherwise will, it will be a crumbly mess.
Absolutely no to the damp towel. That tends to make the phyllo soggy. Instead, unroll the phyllo on to a dry dishtowel. Gently loosen one sheet, brush it with butter and move it to the baking pan. Then repeat that step as needed. If the phyllo starts to feel like it's drying out. carefully take the stack of phyllo and turn it over, so that the bottom sheet becomes the top. Resume working with one sheet at a time. I use this method for making baklava and for making spanakopita.
Over 40 years ago, a friend gave me her Greek grandmother's baklava recipe. The elderly lady was almost blind and had stripped the recipe to its basics--cinnamon sugar, a bag of chopped walnuts, a jar of honey.... She brushed the phyllo with melted butter, but didn't make a syrup, just heated the honey to liquify it, and poured it over the the hot pastry. The baklava has a drier texture, but it's delicious. I do add lemon peel and other flavorings when I heat the honey.
When I was taught how to make baklava many years ago, I was cautioned to never pour the syrup immediately onto the hot-fresh-out-of-the-oven baklava, but always to let it cool a bit. I also pour about 1/2 the syrup and a few minutes later the rest - so it has time to absorb up from the bottom without making the bottom soggy. I also butter each sheet (more challenging), rather than doing them two by two.
Baklava is also a staple in the Middle East. I do not add honey to the syrup . Just mix 1 cup if sugar with 1/2 of water. I do not use spices at all , I find them overpowering. I use a lot of orange blossom water in both the syrup and the filling .
A note to over-ambitious bakers like myself: it is not at all worth it to make your own phyllo dough. It’s nothing but an all-day, boring, heavy kitchen labor. And the homemade isn’t as ideal as the store-bought because the homemade is inevitably thicker, irregular edges, etc. Love yourself and buy the dough.
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