Hello again Cooking Companions!
This weeks recipe blog is yet another one of my favourite sweets, Baklava.
There are lots of varieties of Baklava but the main ingredients to all of them are Filo pastry, nuts, spice, sugar syrup or honey and butter, lots of butter!You may have seen them in what I like to call "posher" supermarkets like Waitrose, where you can buy selection boxes. I've no problem with these apart from the fact that I can easily demolish a box to myself in no time at all.
They are a real sweet-toothed persons sweet and believe me a little goes a long way!
I've been to Greece a few times and been almost dumbstruck when walking into a baklava shop at the literally dozens of different types.Cut into different shapes, folded differently or rolled into Baklava "cigars", various decoration on top from gold leaf to fine nut powder, lavender flowers or crystallised rose petals.
They are really really good at the end of a meal or with a good strong afternoon coffee.
Although Turkish in origin they are available in a lot of Mediterranean countries and a lot of them are regional depending on what type of nuts grow in that particular place.
The recipe I've done for you today is quite a basic recipe but trust me it is still a very satisfying thing to make and the end result is totally delicious. You can change the type of nuts to use ( pecan baklava are one of my favourite types but my funds wouldn't stretch to buying the amount of pecans I'd need.) Or you can change the spices you put in the nut mix, you can even flavour the syrup with different things ( Rosewater or orange blossom water are great flavours to add as they give a really perfumed syrup.) but what I've tried to do with this recipe is give you a great Baklava with ingredients that are readily available in most supermarkets.
So, shall we cook then?
Equiptment:
1 non stick baking tray, approx 7" x 11" x 2" deep.
Pastry brush ( although I use a fine paintbrush for mine, never used for painting, obviously!)
1 moistened tea towel.
Heavy bottomed saucepan.
Measuring jug.
Vegetable peeler or lemon zester.
A good sharp chefs knife ( long blade, approx 9" )
Pestle and mortar.
Ingredients:
250g nuts ( I've used 150g of whole shelled Pistachios and 100g
of mixed chopped nuts to keep the price down a bit.)
250g butter.
380g caster sugar.
6 whole cardamom pods, de-podded and the seeds ground in the pestle and mortar.
Juice of half a lemon.
The rind of one orange.
300ml water.
Method:
Firstly, remove the rind from your orange with the vegetable peeler or zester. If using a peeler be careful not to go too deep as you want just the orange skin and not the bitter white pith from underneath, if you do get any pith left on the rind gently scrape it off with a sharp knife.Slice the orange rind as thin as you can ( this is called a chiffonade in cheffing terms.) like you get in fine cut marmalade.
Put the water along with 350g of the sugar and the juice of half a lemon and the chiffonade orange rind in your saucepan and put on the hob on a low heat.Unpack one pack of the filo pastry and carefully lay it out flat on a clean work surface, immediately covering it with the moistened tea towel. The filo will dry out,crack, split and
be unusable if you leave it out uncovered for more than about a minute!
Unpack your butter and put it in a bowl in the microwave on the lowest setting. You want the butter to melt but not split into fat and milk solids so keep an eye on it. With the butter wrapper, lightly grease the baking tray.
Once the butter has melted remove from microwave and, with the pastry brush slather some over the first sheet of filo.You want to completely cover the filo so don't worry about how much you're using.
Gently lift the first sheet of buttered filo and lay into the baking tray. Re-cover the rest of the filo sheets with the tea towel.If there is any overlap of the first sheet of filo fold it back over itself so it fits in the tin. Don't worry too much if you get a few splits or holes in the first few layers as these only form the bottom of the Baklava and you
won't see them when its finished.
Repeat the process with the other 5 sheets of filo, replacing
the tea towel every time. You should now have a good looking buttery filo base.
Empty your pistachios out onto a chopping board and start to chop with the knife, slowly at first so they don't ping all over the kitchen. You can chop them as fine as you like but i like to leave them quite chunky to get a nice crunchy texture when its finished.
Put the nuts in a bowl and stir in the remaining 30g of sugar and the ground cardamom seeds. If you're using the ready chopped nuts then add them too.
Gently spread the nut mix over the bottom layer of filo sheets in the baking tray.
Now open the other pack of filo pastry and, again, lay it out on your work surface, covering with the tea towel.Repeat the same process as with the bottom layer but try to be careful not to tear it as this will be what you see when the Baklava is baked. If, when you've finished doing the top layer,
you have any bits of filo left over lightly scrunch them up and drop them onto the top as they give a nice extra crunch to the finished Baklava.
Now pop the tray into the fridge and pre heat the oven to 180 degrees c/ gas mark 4 whilst you finish the syrup on the stove.
The syrup should take about 30 minutes, you don't want it caramelising and going a golden colour, it just needs to have reduced, by about half, to a syrup.
When the syrup is thick enough (it needs to still be runny enough to pour into a jug) remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
go golden on the top.
Then turn the oven down to 150 degrees c./ gas
mark 2 for a further 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes take out of the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. It should look nice and golden and have risen slightly.
Pour your syrup into a measuring jug and slowly pour
it into the cuts in the top of the baklava.
Now comes the hard part, its best to leave it like this for the
syrup to be absorbed by the bottom layer of your Baklava for 6 hours!
If you can't wait that long, I wouldn't blame you but if you can resist its charms for as long as possible you will get a truly sticky, sweet, nutty, flaky, crunchy Baklava with a delicate perfume of the cardamon.
To serve, slice right through the baklava to the bottom of the baking tray and gently lift out one at a time.
If you want to keep them they will stay crunchy, covered with foil and in the fridge, for about 4 days.
There we are then. Another fine recipe for you to try, this is one of those recipes that you get better at over time, adding your own flavours and making it your own. you won't be disappointed and neither will your dinner guests!
Well, thanks for reading and please, as usual, let me know how you get on and if you need anything explaining,
just ask!
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