Baklava, the Greek way..my way..

Hello everyone!


The history of baklava is not well known.. Everybody ,claimed the baklava, many ethnic groups, but most probably its Arabic origin. However, the Ottoman- Turkish- Arabic desserts are similar to the old  Greek-Byzantine ones, using dough, sesame, wheat, nuts and fruits.Baklava, is documented as the Byzantine favorite  and this is how my grandmother was doing it. It is easy and once you follow the directions you will have the best Baklava you ever had!

What we need:

phyllo dough 1 or 1 &1/2 packet  ( what you don't use, you can freeze it)

 2 cups olive oil

1 1/2 cup of butter ( clarified butter is the best- pure butter, or Ghi)

here is what we need for the stuffing:

walnuts -  5 1/2 cups

bread crumbs - 2 cups

1 table spoon cinnamon ( powder)

1  teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup of sugar

1/2 spoon of fine ground orange peel

and finally what we need for the syrup :

4 1/2 cups of sugar

1 Lt water

1  1/2 cup honey

1 orange ( ONLY THE SKIN)

1 Lemon ( the juice)

a pinch of cinnamon

 In a food processor ground the walnuts. Don't make them powder but small pieces. Now combine the walnuts the bread crumbs, the cinnamon, the nutmeg, the sugar, the orange peel in a mixing bowl. with a spoon mix well.

Warm the butter to melt and mix it with the olive oil.  Take a baking dish ( I use aluminium or metal, it bakes much better than the glass) which is almost the size of the phyllo dough in length. Grease with a brush the baking dish.
 Take 9 sheets of  phyllo dough (one by one) and place them in the dish in this order: phyllo dough- a spoon of the oil butter mixture on it- phyllo dough- a  tbl spoon of the oil butter mixture etc until you are done with the 9 sheets. make sure to use your greasing brush on each of the phyllo sheet to grease it well.
Now take a hand full of the walnuts mixture and put it evenly on the last phyllo you have placed on the dish. add one more phyllo sheet- grease- add a handful of the walnuts mixture and continue until you have no more walnuts. Carefully, the walnuts must be spread evenly  Finally, use 9 phyllo sheets to add on the top, following the line of - phyllo- oil butter mixture- phyllo -oil butter mixture etc.
 At last with a sharp knife cut away the edges- if any- and cut your dessert carefully in triangles or squares. Poke each triangle with  1 whole clove. 1 for each. The cloves they keep the phyllo in place while in the oven.
  Now, pour evenly on the baklava the rest of the warm butter mixture. all of it. Bake it in medium heat until has changed color and turned golden.

Meanwhile in the oven,  combine the ingredients for the syrup in a large pot on medium fire and stir for 15 minutes .  Remove the foam with a spoon ( the honey is foamy  once its boiled). Keep the  syrup warm .

When the baklava is ready ( it takes up to 1 hour and 10 minutes , depends on the oven), take it out of the oven and  pour evenly the warm syrup on it. It has do be warm and the desert hot.

After you are done with the syrup, let it stand, to cool down. Don't cover it. If you cover it, the phyllo dough with become soft and yukky and we really want it crunchy and yummy!

Enjoy!!!! its divine!














~ Emmanuel