And today is National Baklava Day. To celebrate, we share a recipe from Greek-American television personality Maria Menounos, passed down from her mum.
What comes to mind when you hear the words 'sweet pastry', 'honey' and 'nuts'? BAKLAVA!
In Maria's words, "it is easy to make".
Baklava
A traditional and decadent Greek dessert is made with layers of phyllo pastry, filled with chopped walnuts and then drenched in lemon and orange syrup.
Ingredients
One box of filo dough (room temperature)
½ kg of walnuts
One teaspoon of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of cloves
Three tablespoons of sugar
1 cup of plain breadcrumbs
½ kg of melted sweetened butter
Syrup
Five cloves
1 ½ cups of sugar
6 cups of water
½ orange peel
½ lemon peel
Two sticks of cinnamon
Tools
a flat brush
blender
sharp knife
Directions
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Chop the walnuts into tiny pieces.
In a small bowl, mix all the dry ingredients: bread crumbs, cinnamon, cloves, walnuts, and sugar.
Roll open the filo and pour a cup of the dry mix onto the filo dough. Use your hands to spread the dry mix evenly across the dough’s top sheet.
Start at the bottom of the filo and roll upwards tightly. When you get to the top, take the entire roll, slide it down to the bottom, and re-roll the entire piece again.
Before re-rolling, butter the entire roll with the brush.
Place each roll in a 9x13x2 and butter the top layers of each roll.
Roll-top the filo as tight as you, can and slide it at the beginning of the second filo.
Repeat this until the mix is gone. Before baking, take a sharp knife and pre-slice it to the size you like.
Bake for 40 -45 minutes or until golden brown.
Take it out of the oven to cool down.
Syrup: In a large pot, add all the syrup ingredients. Boil until syrupy…then cool off.
When the syrup is cool, pour it onto the baklava and let it sit until it absorbs.
*You can also watch the video of her cooking demonstration here: