The last dish for the Turkish meal I prepared was Baklava. I had baklava many times, since childhood, as I told on the Turkey – Taste the World post, but I never made it before. It always seemed something complicated to do. After reading a few recipes and a not-very-spectacular attempt, I finally found a recipe I liked and that is so easy to make and works.

I tweaked the recipe a little as I’m not keen on very sweet desserts and I cut 1/3 of the sugar from the syrup. It works fab, but if you want to make it as sweet as it is in shops, then add 300g of sugar instead of the 200g I mentioned in the recipe, keep the same amount of water.

Ingredients for 24 pieces of baklava:
– 1 pack of filo pastry (12 sheets)
– 200g walnuts
– 150g butter
– 1 tsp cinnamon

Ingredients for the syrup:
– 200g sugar
– 250ml water
– 1 spoon of lemon juice

Preheat the oven at 170C or 150C fan.

Cut the filo pastry sheets in half all at once with a very sharp knife or a pizza cutter. Grease the baking tray and place a stack of sheets into the baking tray. Blitz the walnuts in a food processor until they have the right size, not too big and not too small. Tip the walnuts on top of the filo pastry sheets and sprinkle the cinnamon.
Place the remaining stack of filo pastry sheets on top of the walnuts. Cut into pieces as a diamond shape or as squares.

In a saucepan melt the butter at medium heat. When all the butter has melted pour it on the filo sheets. Bake the baklava for 40-50 minutes, until it’s golden brown.

Make the syrup by placing the sugar with the water and lemon juice in a saucepan over high heat. Leave it on high heat until the sugar is dissolved, then reduce the heat and leave it to bubble for 15 minutes.

When the baklava is ready, take it out of the oven and leave it to cool for 10 minutes. Pour the syrup on top and leave it for an hour so the syrup is soaked into the baklava.

It is delicious. I found recipes in which every sheet of pastry had to be brushed with oil or butter, but it takes too much time and the results are similar. Have you ever made baklava?