Ingredients
Syrup
Method
Baklava
1.Preheat oven to 175°C. Process the nuts with the sugar in a food processor until they are chopped finely and resemble breadcrumbs.
2.In a small saucepan, melt the butter.
3.Brush the sides and base of a shallow 20 x 30cm Swiss roll tin liberally with butter. Cut the pastry to fit the tin. I do this with scissors in one solid block as it’s much easier.
4.Lay one sheet of pastry in the tin (it should be quite snug), brush with butter and repeat with the remaining sheets, smoothing each down as you go until you have used half of your pile (or 10-15 sheets). There’s no need to butter between every single sheet, but do make sure to butter between the last two.
5.Now sprinkle your ground nuts evenly over the pastry, leaving a very small perimeter free of nuts.
6.Cover with a buttered sheet of pastry, lay another on top, butter this, then continue layering the rest one at a time, smoothing them down with your hand and flicking the odd bit of melted butter between sheets every now and then. When you have two sheets left, butter each, then brush butter on the top. You should have some melted butter left over.
7.Cut an even grid pattern, each square being about 4 x 4cm. Do this as neatly as you can and work fast, using a strong up/down chopping motion and try not to disturb the pastry layers.
8.Now pour the leftover melted butter over the whole dish, tilting it so that it runs down the grid and gets in all squares. This is a handy trick to save buttering each sheet as you go.
9.Bake until golden brown and puffed up – check after 20-25 minutes to see if the bottom is cooked.
Syrup
10.Meanwhile, make the syrup by bringing all the ingredients to the boil in a saucepan and simmering for 5-7 minutes. It should thicken slightly but not colour.
11.As soon as the baklava comes out of the oven, move quickly to pour or ladle the boiling syrup evenly over the entire surface. Leave to sit, soak and cool. They say never to eat baklava hot or even warm as it is too rich that way, so try to be patient!
12.Sprinkle with crushed pistachios and eat with whipped cream.
Always eat squares of baklava with the top, crunchy side facing down so it doesn’t stick to the top of your mouth. Oh, and always have more than one piece!
Note
