Baklava - simple, delicious cake with honey and nuts

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There's still some time until we'll be able to enjoy seasonal fruit, so today I'd like to share a recipe for a cake with the next best thing - honey and nuts. We'll prepare baklava, a very simple, popular Mediterranean dessert. 


Baklava is as sweet as honey, no surprise there! Filo layers are crunchy, and nuts covered in honey syrup simply melt in your mouth. Is it possible to eat this cake without getting all sticky? Probably not, but the flavour makes up for it completely.

You'll find the list of ingredients, method and approximate nutritional value below.

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List of ingredients (21 x 21 cm dish)

  • 250 g honey
  • 250 ml water
  • Juice of one lemon (~30 ml)
  • 250 g nuts - I'm using pistachios
  • 1 heaped tsp cinnamon
  • 200 g filo pastry
  • 200 g butter

Method

  1. Pour 250 ml water, 250 g honey and freshly squeezed juice of one lemon into a pot. Turn the heat on to low, stir the ingredients until honey dissolves in water and cook them slowly until reduced by a half - around 10-15 minutes. Take the pot off heat and set it aside for its contents to cool completely.
  2. Roughly chop 250 g nuts - shelled pistachios or walnuts. Transfer chopped nuts into a small bowl and add 1 heaped tsp cinnamon. Stir the cinnamon through the nuts until evenly distributed.
  3. Work on filo pastry. Take it out of the fridge at least one hour before assembling the cake - but keep it in the plastic wrap so it wouldn't dry out. Unroll the pastry and cut it to the size of your ovenproof dish - mine is 21 x 21 cm at the top. Divide remaining filo pastry into smaller rectangles, too. Cover the pastry with damp kitchen towel.
  4. Brush the bottom and the sides of the ovenproof dish with cooled melted butter. Place the first filo sheet in the bottom, keeping the rest under the towel. Spread a thin layer of melted butter on the pastry and cover it with the next sheet. Repeat the steps until you get 7-8 filo sheets interleaved with butter. Use the smaller rectangles, too.
  5. Put half of chopped nuts on top of your filo base. Spread them in an even layer and cover with the next 5-6 filo and butter layers. Put remaining nuts on top, even them out and cover with the next 8-10 layers of filo pastry and butter.
  6. Spread melted butter on top of baklava and fold in any overhanging filo pastry to prevent it from burning. Ahead of baking, cut baklava into 16-20 slices. Make sure that your knife cut through all the layers, bottom included.
  7. Bake the baklava in a conventional oven preheated to 180 deg C at the second lowest shelf for 35-40 minutes, until beautiful and golden. If your baklava browns too quickly, cover it loosely with aluminum foil or turn down the temperature by some 10 degrees and extend the cooking time.
  8. Straight after taking the baklava out of the oven, pour about a half of cool honey syrup on top. Pour the syrup into the cuts as well as spaces between the baklava and the dish sides. Set the baklava aside to cool.
  9. Pour in remaining honey syrup onto the cake once it's cool and decorate it with some reserved nuts. Leave the cake at room temperature for a few hours for the syrup to get absorbed by nuts and pastry.
  10. Enjoy!

Approximate nutritional value

100 g

  • 440 kcal
  • Carbs: 41 g 
  • Fat: 29 g
  • Protein: 7 g
  • Fibre: 3 g

1 slice (recipe makes 16 slices)

  • 267 kcal
  • Carbs: 25 g 
  • Fat: 17 g
  • Protein: 4 g
  • Fibre: 2 g

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