Baklava

My grandson has just turned two and on Sunday we are all gathering for afternoon tea to celebrate the occasion. I have been asked to make baklava - and this is my version of it shown above. It's very popular and looks pretty impressive but is one of the easiest, if slightly tedious, things to make. I've been making it for many years now and my recipe has evolved from one by Tess Mallos and another from a small book I have called Greek Cooking. But, as I say, like baklava in general, my version has evolved.

I looked it up on Wikipedia and read through the arguments about the origins of the word and the arguments about the origins of the dish. They ranged from the Romans, to the Turks, to the Mongolians even, so I decided it wasn't really worth the effort of disentangling truth from fiction - and obviously there are different truths according to where you come from. There is a Turkish town which has got itself official recognition for its baklava - but I'm guessing it's a particular version of baklava - mostly with pistachios I think. And the dish obviously continues to evolve - I saw a picture of a poster advertising twenty different flavours of baklava, and Nigel Slater had a version that included morello cherry jam in the filling and dried raspberries on the top - not very traditional that one!

The main arguments seem to be over the ingredients in the filling and the syrup - what kind of nuts (the favourites seem to be a mix of walnuts and almonds, but I have also seen pistachio and hazelnut mentioned), whether you add any spices and/or sugar to the nuts - cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg?, and then for the syrup - honey, lemon juice, rosewater, orangewater? Felicity Cloake, as usual, gives a useful summary of them all. her version looks like this:

Going back to its origins, I have to confess that I always thought of it as Greek. But that's probably because I live in Melbourne (once upon a time the second or third largest Greek city in the world), and it was in Melbourne that I first encountered it. The Greeks, I think, were the largest group of post-war immigrants to Australia, and at the time they were clustered in what is now little Vietnam, in Richmond. Since then they have dispersed - as, no doubt, the Vietnamese will too. There are lots of them in Templestowe - the suburb across the river from us and they have opened up Greek pastry shops all over Melbourne. So we are now all seasoned baklava eaters.

It's definitely not good for you - a whole 250g of butter go into my version - not to mention the sugar. You really only need a little bit, but it's very moresome. Here is the recipe I use.

Tess Mallos’ version

20 sheets filo pastry, 3/4 cup melted, unsalted butter, 2 cups finely chopped walnuts, 1 cup finely chopped almonds, 1/4 cup caster sugar, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp ground cloves.

Syrup - 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 cups water, 1/4 cup honey, thinly peeled strip of lemon rind, small piece cinnamon bark, 3 cloves, 2 tsps lemon juice.

Butter base and sides of dish and place nine sheets of fillo separately into the dish, brushing each with melted butter. Mix nuts, sugar and spices and spread half of this mixture over filo. Top with another two sheets of filo, brushing each with butter. Spread remaining nuts on top and finish with remaining filo, brushing each sheet as before. Trim edges and brush top with butter. Cut baklava with a sharp knife into diamond shapes. Sprinkle lightly with water to prevent top layers curling upwards. Bake on centre shelf of a moderately slow oven (160oC) for 30 mins. Move up one shelf and cook for further 30 mins. Cover with greased brown paper or foil if top colours too quickly. Pastry must be allowed to cook thoroughly.

When baklava goes into the oven, make the syrup. Place sugar, water and honey in a heavy pan and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add remaining syrup ingredients, bring to the boil and boil for 15 mins. Strain and cool.

Spoon syrup evenly over hot baklava. Leave for several hours before cutting again into serving portions.

My variation

My version is basically Tess Mallos’. The only thing I do differently is to layer the nuts more. I put in about 2 sheets of filo, sprinkle lightly with the nuts, cover with another 2 sheets, sprinkle with nuts, cover with another 2 sheets, sprinkle with nuts and so on until I’ve used all the nuts. I find it makes for a more even spread of nuts and pastry.