Baklava ... or Baklawa

i think the spelling and pronuoncition berbeza2 geographycally. sebab manisan baklava yang pada kita orang Malaysia lebih sinonim dengan negara2 timur tengah dan turki sebenarnya juga terkenal di negara2 balkan i.e. greece dan bosnia. jadi asal dari mana baklava ni? hmmm risik2 lah sendiri ye... meh layan resipi. i owe this to one silent reader - dasheila and diana.

there are many version of baklava recipe can be found on the internet, you may choose either the greeks version or turkish version. and there's iranians and afghans version too. masa nak buat tu i had this iranians recipe in hand tapi tengok list panjang sangat and the portion pun quite large so in the end i opted for simple recipe yang diambil kat rumah kak min aka lemongrass. minta halal ye ;-)

Baklava (simplified version)

10 keping filo pastry
100g butter, cairkan (sila guna lebih butter coz 100gm is not enough for me!)
about 300g mixed nuts (you can use pistachio, walnuts, almonds, cashew), kisar halus (i use a combination of almonds & pistachio - tapi pistachio lebih sedap & mahal!!! next time i'm gonna use pistachio only!)

For the sugar syrup
250g gula kasar
150mls air
a splash of lemon juice (dalam 1 sudu teh pun cukup)
1/2 tablespoon of rosewater (kalau ada)
* i adopt the iranian version by putting in 1 cinnamon stick. i don't have rosewater in my pantry. ada juga recipe yang letak cardamon pods (biji buah pelaga)
*boleh tambah 1 sudu besar madu kalau suka

- Masak air dan gula sehingga menggelegak. Letak kulit kayu manis (atau cardamon pods kalau guna). Let it boil for about 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice and rosewater (and honey kalau guna). Peringatan: jangan boil the syrup terlalu lama or sehingga terlalu pekat/likat, nanti susah nak menyerap ke dalam baklava. Pour the sugar syrup onto the cooked hot baklava.


Preheat oven to 180ºC.
1. Grease a rectangular disposable aluminium container (utk senang nak buang terus lepas tu :-)) measuring 8"x 12".
2. Sapu 1 keping filo pastry dgn melted butter. Nak koyakkan filo pastry ni hati2 coz sangat nipis. Sementara tengah brush filo dengan butter keep the rest berbalut sebab dia cepat kering nanti mudah koyak. Kemudian lipat 2 dan masukkan dlm container, adjust sikit the filo pastry to fit. Repeat until dah letak 5 keping pastry dlm container.
3. Kemudian taburkan kacang ground kat atas filo pastry tu sehingga habis dan menutupi semua bahagian pastry.
4. Ulang step 2 dan letak atas taburan kacang tadi sehingga semua filo habis digunakan. Make sure lapisan filo yg di atas sekali disapu dgn butter bnyk sikit.
5. Potong baklava bentuk diamond sehingga lapisan bawah sekali sebelum masuk dlm oven.
6. Bakar for about 25 mins or until golden.
7. Take the baklava out of the oven and straight away pour half of the syrup on it. Let it meresap dulu, then pour the rest of the syrup.
8. Enjoy!

* I leave the baklava for a few hours until the syrup meresap betul2 ke dalam. Ada yang kata best leave them soaked overnight which is even better kalau anda boleh tahan sabar hehe. You can granish the baklava with remaining ground pistachio.

Ada yang bertanya apa rasanya baklava ni?
I was asking myself the same thing before i first tasted one. For a sweeth tooth like me, rasa dia hmm... heaven!
okay seriously, rasa dia lemak2 manis - manis datangnya daripada syrup tu and lemak from the nuts. kalau guna pistachio rasanya lebih lemak dan sedap. while the filo pastry sungguhpun masa baru keluar oven rasanya rangup tapi after u let the syrup seep through and leave them overnight, filo tu akan jadi lembut but can still hold its texture. hmm pernah makan biskut kacang tumbuk? lebih kurang begitulah cuma tidak rangup.