Baklava
An easy recipe for baklava made with walnuts, honey and lemon. This is a basic version designed for a 9x13 inch pan. I haven't tested a half batch in an 8 inch square pan, but will update when I do.
Servings 24
Equipment
Ingredients
Syrup Mixture
- 1 ½ cups sugar (300 grams)
- ¾ cup water (180 grams) You can weigh your liquids, too!
- ⅓ cup honey (120 grams)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Some lemon and orange zest (optional) Just a few scrapes**
Baklava
- 2 sleeves phyllo dough ( around 36 9x14 inch sheets) (16 oz)
- 2 ½ cups chopped walnuts (280 grams)
- 6 tablespoons granulated sugar (75 grams)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 8 oz salted butter, gently melted and cooled (230 grams)
Instructions
- To make the syrup, put the saucepan on the scale. Set the tare to zero and add 300 grams of sugar and 180 grams of water ( or just measure 1 ½ cups sugar and ¾ cup water). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Turn off heat. Let cool for 10 minutes, then add the 120 grams honey, lemon juice and zests. Let cool completely.
- Meanwhile, bring your sleeves of refrigerator-thawed phyllo to room temperature. Don't open them, just let them sit on the counter for about 45 minutes.
- Pulse the walnuts in a food processor so that they are finely chopped. Add the sugar and cinnamon and pulse twice to mix (or dump into a bowl and mix).
- Brush a 9x13 inch pan all over with butter.
- Dampen a towel or a couple of paper towels (my preference) to keep over the phyllo while you work. Unroll the first roll of phyllo dough and lay it flat on a large clean surface. Carefully peel away one sheet of phyllo and lay it in the pan of butter. Brush butter on the sheet of phyllo, then continue layering on 13 more sheets, buttering after each one, so that you've used about about 14 sheets total. Don't worry if you lose count. Adding an extra sheet of phyllo here and there won't hurt.
- Sprinkle about 1 cup of the walnut mixture evenly over the dough.
- Lay two more sheets of phyllo over the nuts, brushing butter between each sheet.
- Layer on another cup of walnuts along with two more sheets of phyllo, brushing butter as usual.
- Spread the rest of the nuts on top. You should have three layers of nuts total.
- Open the second roll of phyllo. If you lost count and had to open the other sleeve earlier, that's okay.
- Top the final layer of nuts with 12 to 14 more sheets of phyllo dough, mindfully buttering between each sheet and not getting upset if it tears.
- Using a very sharp knife, score the phyllo dough into diamonds by making diagonal cuts. When you score, try not to cut all the way through the bottom sheet. This will help prevent sogginess of the bottom layer.
- Put the unbaked assembled baklva in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This sets the butter and helps the dough bake up flakier.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Bake for 45 minutes.
- Drizzle the cool baklava syrup over the hot baked baklava. Let sit for at least two hours.
- Cut along the score marks to separate.
