Turkish Baklava - Serves 8-10
Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
18 sheets ready-made filo pastry (unwrap and keep under a damp tea-towel until you are ready to use)
230g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
230g pistachios, roughly chopped
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom
For the syrup
350g granulated sugar
300ml water
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp orange juice
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
- Grease a 17cm x 28cm (11in x 7in) baking tray with butter.
- Melt the remaining butter in a saucepan over low heat.
- Lay half the sheets of filo, one at a time, into the tray, brushing each sheet with butter before adding the next.
- In a bowl, mix together the nuts, sugar and cardamom and spread the mixture over the pastry in the tray.
- Layer up the remaining sheets on top of the nut mixture, brushing each sheet with butter, as before.
- Using a sharp knife, cut a criss-cross pattern into the top layers of the baklava.
- Place baklava in the preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes at 180C, then turn down the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2 and cook for an additional half hour , or until the pastry is slightly puffed and golden on top. Remove and allow to cool down slightly.
- For the syrup, heat the sugar, water, lemon and orange juice in a small, saucepan and cook over a medium heat until the sugar has melted and a syrup is formed. (This will take approximately 20 minutes.)
- Pour the syrup into the slits in the baklava and leave to cool. Cut into small diamond-shaped pieces and serve.