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BAKLAVA

BAKLAVA

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Makes: 16 pieces

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  • Nigella Recipe
  • Vegetarian

This is so temple-achingly sweet that one small marked-out diamond, or maybe two, is enough. But even so, I love its perfumed sugariness - as much as I love the tender, rose-shot green of its equally fragrant nubbly interior.

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Ingredients

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For the syrup

  • 300 ml water
  • 500 grams caster sugar
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • 1 tablespoon rosewater
  • 1 tablespoon orange-flower water

For the pastry

  • 325 grams pistachios (chopped in a processor til medium fine)
  • 125 grams unsalted butter (melted)
  • 400 grams filo pastry
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Method

You will need a square foil tin, 23 x 23 x 4cm.

  1. To make the syrup: bring the water, sugar and lemon juice to the boil, and keep it at boiling point for 5 minutes. Add the rosewater and orange-flower water, and then remove it from the heat. Pour it into a jug, let it cool and then chill it in the fridge.
  2. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.
  3. Brush the tin with butter, and then each of the filo pastry sheets as you line the tin with them. Use half of the pastry for the bottom layer, placing the sheets in the tin evenly so that the pastry goes up the sides with a little overhang. As the tin is square and the filo pastry is often a rectangular shape, you should try to arrange the sheets so that each side is covered in turn. When you have used up half of the pastry, spread the pistachios evenly over the filo sheets. Then carry on with the rest of the pastry in the same way. The last sheet on top should also be buttered well, and then with a sharp knife trim around the top edge of the tin to give a neat finish.
  4. Cut parallel lines 4-5cm apart to form diamond shapes, making sure you cut the baklava right through to the bottom of the tin.
  5. Put in the oven and cook for 30 minutes, by which time the filo will have puffed up and become golden-brown. As soon as it comes out of the oven, pour over half the cold syrup. Leave it a few minutes to soak in and then pour over the rest.

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  • felt like I was transported somewhere else when I first ate these...

    Posted by manonlescaut on 2nd Apr 2012 at 13.10

  • I made this last night for Olympic Greek themed day at my boyfriends work. Very tasty, but feel that it needs something to bind it all together like honey, or maybe spreading the nuts between the layers rather than one clump, as the top section of filo kept coming off.... although the distance from plate to mouth isn't so far :)

    Posted by Keechy on 8th Aug 2012 at 11.37