Baklawa - The Sweetheart Middle Eastern Dessert

By shriya on Oct 16, 2008 in Best of ST, Featured, Middle Eastern, Sweets & Desserts | Print This Print This

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Baklawa is a signature middle-eastern dessert and is a favorite favorie favorite sweet of mine. I used to pester my hubby often to get this from a middle-eastern restaurant in town. It is even our make-up dessert after our little fights. That’s how much I like it.
Even though I have tried my hand at baking a little, Baklawa seemed very intimidating to make it in my kitchen. And just the other day, I was talking to an old time school friend of mine, Subash. He is now a chef and when we started talking about food, he mentioned he had a simple to make yet an authentic recipe for Baklawa from a Labanese chef. He was kind enough to share it with me and a huge THANKS to you, Subash.

Ingredients:

Baklawa 2

  • Phillo pastry : 1 pack
  • Sugar : 1/2 cup
  • Almonds flakes : 2 cups
  • Baklawa Fillings : 2 cups
  • Butter : 2 sticks or  2 cups
  • Sugar syrup : 1 cup

Baklawa Filling:

  • Cream : 2 cup
  • Custard powder: 1/2 cup
  • Hazelnut Meal: 1 cup (or) Almonds flakes: 1 cup
  • Eggs: 2 (optional)
  • Sugar: 1/2 cup

Sugar syrup:

  • Sugar: 3.5 cups
  • Water: 2 cups
  • Lime juice: 1/2 tbsp

Method of Preparation:

  1. Bring the phillo pastry sheets into room temperature ( you can buy this phillo sheets at most grocery stores in frozen sections).
  2. For baklawa filling mix all the ingredients together, blend it well and keep them aside.

    3. Baklawa 3

  3. Now unwrap the roll out the dough and cover the phillo pastry sheets with a damp cloth to keep the sheets from drying out.
  4. Butter a 12×16 inch baking pan and layer with phillo sheets, spread the butter in the phillo sheet by using a pastry brush or some cloth dipped in butter .

    5. Baklawa4

  5. Sprinkle some almonds on it and place another phillo sheet and do repeat this for three more times.

    6. Baklawa5

  6. Now pour the filling and layer with  phillo sheet and almonds flakes as before.

    7. baklawa6

  7. Finally  pour the remaining butter on top of the phillo sheets  .
  8. cut them into diamonds , if the knife stick with sheets dip the knife in hot water then it’ll be easy for cutting.

    9. Baklawa9

  9. Preheat the oven for 350 F and bake the above tray for 45 minutes to 50 minutes or until it becomes golden brown on top. (watch them carefully at the last 5 to 10 minutes otherwise it will burn quickly)

    10. In between that prepare the sugar syrup,

  10. Boil 2 cups of water in  a sauce pan when its come to full boil add the sugar and let them boil for about 20 to 25 minutes. After that remove the syrup from heat and squeeze the lime and mix it well .

    11. Baklawa Sugar syrup

  11. Now after the baklawa done at the oven remove it from there let it cool for few minutes and pour the prepared hot sugar syrup from one side of the tray and let it run on to other side.

    12. Baklawa8

  12. And garnish them with pistachios and serve them.

    13. baklawa7

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Posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 and is filed under Best of ST, Featured, Middle Eastern, Sweets & Desserts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

20 Responses to “Baklawa - The Sweetheart Middle Eastern Dessert”

  1. anudivya October 16th, 2008, 12:15 pm

    That looks gorgeous! Perfect dessert for make-ups ;)
    Cream used in filling is heavy whipping cream?

  2. Cilantro October 16th, 2008, 12:22 pm

    I was introducd this dessert thru my friend and ever since I started liking them. Yours looks too tempting. Will try this one.

  3. meeso October 16th, 2008, 5:17 pm

    This is also one of my favorite desserts! Yours looks like it turned out delicious, and it is really pretty, too! I made this at home a long time ago, I should try again with your recipe.

  4. Mansi October 16th, 2008, 5:34 pm

    that looks amazing Shriya! and so authentic, great job girl!:)

  5. Manasi October 16th, 2008, 8:11 pm

    Looks SO good! I have a terrible sweet tooth. and this is VERY inviting!!

  6. Manasi October 16th, 2008, 8:11 pm

    Looks SO good! I have a terrible sweet tooth. and this is VERY inviting!!

  7. subash October 16th, 2008, 11:46 pm

    ohhhh thats a great job look like that a perfect chef has made it very tempting photos and a good presentation

  8. Aartee October 16th, 2008, 11:57 pm

    Wow, ur pics are too perfect, and i just cant resist. just a few doubts, is there any other name for the sheets or any specific area in which i should be looking for it? should it cool completely before pouring the sugar syrup.How long does it stay if i put it in the fridge?

  9. jayasree October 17th, 2008, 12:07 am

    Looks gorgeous and tempting…

  10. Srimathi(foody.guru) October 17th, 2008, 11:27 am

    Wonderful! I love baklawa a lot. Made it only once though.I liked that you have pictures of the whole process in baking a baklawa.

  11. Uma October 18th, 2008, 6:28 pm

    ooh, baklawa looks so scrumptious! So detailed instructions.

  12. srimathy October 20th, 2008, 9:45 pm

    Looks great shriya!! mail me some of this da.good job

  13. sireesha October 23rd, 2008, 5:31 am

    That looks gorgeous and perfect…

  14. Sophie October 24th, 2008, 9:17 am

    This looks so delicious! One of my favorite desserts too :0).

  15. I Love Cooking October 27th, 2008, 4:00 pm

    Baklawa is my absolute favorite! Thanks for sharing this recipe…going to try it out this weekend.

  16. Maggie November 3rd, 2008, 4:41 pm

    I have to give this a try!

    I’ve been intimidated by phyllo in the past too. So many times it’s stuck together and ripped but I just recently went back and gave it another shot and finally succeeded! I’ve been making apple strudel with phyllo and I can’t wait to give baklawa a try.

  17. tennen-parman November 3rd, 2008, 10:12 pm

    Hi, I am Tennen-Perman,E-mail from Japan.
    I visited your site sometimes so far.
    You have a cool site.
    I linked your site in my blog.
    I administer a blog talking about cooking.
    Please link to my site in your ones if you like it.

    http://impact-cook.blogspot.com/

    thank you!

  18. Homecooked November 5th, 2008, 5:06 am

    Wow….lovely recipe.Thanks for sharing. Baklava seems so difficult to make. Thankfully this inspires me :)

  19. devi srinivasan December 2nd, 2008, 3:37 pm

    hi spicy tasty authors….

    well baklawa looks oomph! but the ingredients not so…
    there is no custard filling in the authentic baklawa.guys baklawa
    is the spirit of the middle east. the main nuts to your baklawas are missing-pistachios and walnuts…Being from middle east
    you know how your favourites sweets are! your recipe is good
    except these few tips ,correct them.. Baklawa are truly precious to your taste buds! instead of the sugar in the filling mix in honey which is th true binding factor for the nuts. lesser calories!

    cheers….
    keep up your food logs!

  20. Kalpana December 3rd, 2008, 6:36 am

    Thanks, Shriya. It looks awesome. Detailed description, so I can attempt to make one of my fav. dessert.

    Aartee, phyllo or filo pastry is available in the frozen section. this is the longer version of the ones used to make samosas…probably a bit diff. in composition…

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