Baklava

Ingredients

For the sugar syrup

-              250g sugar

-              80g honey

-              ¾ cup water

-              1 tbsp orange blossom water

-              Teeny bit of salt

-              Teeny bit of lemon

For the filling

-              340g walnuts or pistachios. I prefer walnuts.

For the Baklava 

-              Packet of phyllo dough

-              200g melted butter (*clarified by melting and removing white, fluffy, whey by-product)

Method

Heat oven to 150C.

Blend nuts in food processor until finely chopped but not powdery.

Brush the tin (12x9 in pan**) with butter then lay the first phyllo sheet down. Brush it with butter and repeat the process until you have a base of 8 sheets.

Spread one third of the nuts evenly over the base.

Layer another 7 sheets of phyllo down

Cover with the remaining nuts.

Layer another 8 sheets pf phyllo down, leaving the top layer butter free.

Before baking, cut the baklava into diamonds or triangles (whatever size you’re going for)

Bake for 1 hour 30 min, rotating halfway through. It should be golden and crispy on top.

While it is baking, prepare the syrup. Boil all the syrup ingredients together, stir and then leave to cool. I put room temperature syrup over hot baklava.

Remove from the oven and immediately pour the cool syrup over the baklava and listen to its music as it sizzles away.

Leave it be for at least an hour to absorb the syrup before eating. Store at room temperature or in the fridge — it gets better the next day.

Notes  

* don’t be lazy, just do it.

**size doesn’t really matter