Original Recipe from Food Network Canada Christine Cushing
- 1/4 cup shelled, unsalted pistachios
- 1/2 cup shelled, roasted hazelnuts
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 finely grated lemon rind
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 6 sheets phyllo pastry
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a food processor, combine the pistachios, hazelnuts, cloves, 1/4 cup of the sugar and 2 tsp. of the cinnamon.
- Pulse until nuts are coarsely chopped. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 2 tbsp. sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.
- Lay out 1 sheet of phyllo (keep remaining phyllo under a damp tea towel) and brush gently with some melted butter.
- Sprinkle with a little of the cinnamon mixture.
- Lay another piece of phyllo on top and repeat the brushing and sprinkling of cinnamon mixture, ending with a layer of phyllo that is only brushed with butter.
- Sprinkle with nut mixture and the remaining sugar.
- Roll the phyllo into a cigar shape.
- Transfer the roll to prepared baking sheet and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until browned and crisp.
- Remove from oven and cut the roll into 9 pieces.
- Let cool completely.
- Transfer pieces to a baking dish just large enough to hold them.
- Meanwhile, prepare syrup by combining water, honey and lemon juice in a small saucepan.
- Bring to a boil, stirring, and remove from heat.
- Pour over cooled baklava and let stand about 30 to 90 minutes before serving; for best flavour pour honey about 2 days ahead of serving. Store in an air tight container.
I wonder whether you might want to add the amounts that Christine used for her sugar syrup to your recipe above so that people don’t have to go to her recipe page. 🙂
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup amber Greek honey or other good-quality honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
My mother always made a lot of syrup to add to her baklava, and cooked it til it thickened a bit, so the proportions above seem a bit sparse for my taste.
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I’ve never actually had home made baklava, so I am jealous! We are not huge sweet eaters, so the less syrupy recipe actually appealed to us. But I can certainly see the appeal for a thicker syrup. The honey quality sure makes a difference though. Thanks for the suggestion on including the syrup, it was so long ago I made it!
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I used 1 cup water, 2/3 cup white sugar and 1/3 cup honey, a 1″ stick of cinnamon, a strip of lemon peel as well as a couple of tbsp of lemon juice, brought the liquid to a boil and then turned the heat down and simmered it for about 20 minutes. Fish out the cinnamon stick and lemon peel and let the syrup cool and then refrigerate it until the baklava came out of the oven. It wasn’t overly sweet though I’ve seen syrup recipes that are 1.5 parts sugar or honey to 1 part water. This is a much sweeter syrup.
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Thanks Maria. I’ll give your version a try when I make it again.
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