Christine Polyzos does an amazing job at preserving and celebrating the many wonderful Greek recipes that feature on her blog and Youtube channel, ‘Kali Orexi’, and through the cooking classes that she runs in her home kitchen and online. She has an infectious passion for preserving the rich culinary heritage she grew up with and that passion shines brightly when she cooks in her kitchen.
This award-winning recipe for Vasiliki’s baklava was originally documented on the Kali Orexi website in 2015. In 2018, Christine entered Vasiliki’s recipe in the ‘My Baklava is Better Than Yours’ competition at the Lonsdale Street Greek Festival - and won! The baklava recipe below is Vasiliki’s original baklava recipe.
Christine has baked and sold this baklava since 2019 and in that time has refined the recipe even further. For all of Christine's extra baklava baking knowledge and insights, join her for one of her baklava classes soon! For more information on Christine’s cooking classes (and all of her delicious recipes), visit her website: https://www.kali-orexi.com.au.
Ingredients
Servings 35
For the baklava
375g Antoniou Fillo Pastry
600g walnuts coarsely ground or chopped
100g almonds finely ground or chopped
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
250g unsalted butter
¾ cup olive oil
For the syrup
2 cups water
2 cups white sugar
1 cinnamon stick
10 cloves whole
1 tablespoon honey
Fresh lemon juice few drops
1 thick slice lemon
Method
Before you begin this Fillo Pastry recipe, take your Fillo Pastry out of the fridge to bring it up to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
Making the baklava
Combine the walnuts, almonds, sesame seeds, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Mix together with a spoon. Set the nut mixture aside.
Melt the butter on a medium flame. Remove from the flame and add the oil. Mix together with a spoon. Set the basting mixture aside.
Remove the Fillo Pastry from its packaging and lay it flat underneath a tea towel.
Place one sheet of Fillo Pastry on your work surface in a landscape orientation. Use a basting brush to baste the Fillo sheet with the basting mixture. Place a second sheet of Fillo Pastry directly on top of the first one and baste that sheet. Place a third sheet of Fillo pastry on top of the first two and baste that sheet. Spread a thin, even layer of the nut mixture across the bottom half of the Fillo Pastry sheet. Place a fourth and final sheet of Fillo Pastry on top of the other three and baste that sheet. Spread another thin, even layer of the nut mixture across the bottom half of that Fillo Pastry sheet as well.
Roll over the nut-covered end of the Fillo Pastry by around 2cm and baste the rolled edge with some of the basting mixture.
Continue to roll the Fillo Pastry tightly to form a long roll. Place the open edge of the roll at the bottom to avoid the roll unravelling.
Set the baklava roll aside without over-handling it.
Repeat basting, filling and rolling the remaining sheets.
Cutting the baklava
Place one roll of baklava on a chopping board. Use a sharp, serrated knife to slice the baklava into evenly sized parallelograms of around 3cm in length. Use the blade of the knife or a long, thin spatula to pick up 3 pieces of baklava and place in line onto a greased, shallow baking tray (avoid over-handling the baklava to ensure the nut mixture does not fall out). Repeat for the remaining rolls of baklava.
Baking the baklava
Brush some of the remaining basting mixture on top of all of the pieces of baklava and pour the remaining basting mixture onto the baking tray around the baklava.
Place the baking tray on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for approximately 45 minutes or until golden brown.
Making the syrup
The syrup needs to be warm when the baklava comes out of the oven so start preparing the syrup about 20 minutes after the baklava has been placed into the oven.
Place the water into a deep pot over a medium flame and add the sugar. Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves. Add the cinnamon and cloves. Stir the mixture again. Once the syrup reaches boiling point (is bubbling), boil it for exactly 6 minutes. Add the honey, lemon juice and lemon slice. Boil for another 2 minutes exactly.
Remove the syrup from the flame and place it on your work surface. Allow the syrup to cool for around 5 minutes before you drench the baklava.
Drenching the baklava
Remove the lemon slice and cinnamon stick from the syrup.
Remove the baklava from the oven and place it on your work surface.
Use tongs to pick up a piece of baklava and place it into the syrup. Turn the piece of baklava over a few times in the syrup to ensure that the syrup seeps through the piece of baklava completely. Remove the piece from the syrup and place it onto a clean tray. Repeat for all of the pieces of baklava.
Allow the baklava to cool for a couple of hours before eating so the syrup thickens.
Christine Polyzos, ‘Kali Orexi’
Christine does an amazing job at preserving and celebrating the many wonderful Greek recipes that feature on her blog and Youtube channel, Kali Orexi Melbourne, and through the cooking classes that she runs in her home kitchen and online. She has an infectious passion for preserving the rich culinary heritage she grew up with and that passion shines brightly when she cooks in her kitchen.
This award-winning recipe for Vasiliki’s baklava was originally documented on the Kali Orexi website in 2015. In 2018, Christine entered Vasiliki’s recipe in the ‘My Baklava is Better Than Yours’ competition at the Lonsdale Street Greek Festival - and won! The baklava recipe above is Vasiliki’s original baklava recipe.
Christine has baked and sold this baklava since 2019 and in that time has refined the recipe even further. For all of Christine's extra baklava baking knowledge and insights, join her for one of her baklava classes soon! For more information on Christine’s cooking classes (and all of her delicious recipes), visit her website: https://www.kali-orexi.com.au.
To view an instructional video of this baklava being made, visit the Kali Orexi Youtube Channel.
Follow Christine
You can find out more about Christine, the recipes she shares and the cooking classes she runs by visiting her website: https://www.kali-orexi.com.au
You can also follow Christine’s journey on her Instagram page, ‘kalioreximelbourne' and her Facebook page.