One of our family’s most celebrated recipes is Yiayia Marina’s Baklava and we are so excited to share it with you. She’s been making it the same way for over 60 years and it continues to make an appearance at every family gathering, large or small. We hope that making it and eating it brings you the same joy that it does for our family. Our family’s recipe is for a large sized tray, enough to make 100 tiny bite sized serves, or 25 larger dessert sized portions. We’ve used a tray measuring 42cm by 24cm.
Ingredients
Makes 100 tiny bite sized serves, or 25 larger dessert sized portions.
For syrup
1 ½ cups water
2 ½ cups sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cinnamon quill
10 whole cloves
3 heaped tbsp honey
For the baklava
2 packets Antoniou Fillo Pastry
500g almonds
2 heaped tbsp white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
250g unsalted butter (bottom half of baklava)
½ cup water
335g unsalted butter (top half of baklava)
Recipe tips
Hot baklava, cold syrup
For a baklava that is crispy and syrup soaked, ensure your syrup is cooled when poured onto your hot baklava.
Baking tray
A tray that has square corners rather than rounded ones is preferable as it is easier to line the Fillo. We used a tray measuring 42cm x 24cm.
Clarified butter
Clarified butter is regular butter with the milk solids removed. As you melt your butter, it will naturally separate into layers, only use the golden liquid layer (the clarified butter), and not the white milk solids (the bottom layer).
An Antoniou Family wedding cake, made with Yiayia Marina’s baklava
Method
For this Filo Pastry recipe, take your fresh Filo Pastry out of the fridge at least 2 hours before you begin to bring it up to room temperature.
Pre heat your oven to 180 deg C (fan forced).
To make the syrup
Place water, sugar, lemon, cinnamon and cloves in a small saucepan and bring to the boil.
Allow to boil until the sugar has dissolved. Add the honey and continue to boil until the liquid thickens and bubbles.
To test whether the syrup is ready, place some syrup on a tablespoon and place it in the freezer for a couple of minutes. If it sets on the spoon then it is ready.
Take off the heat and allow to cool.
To make the baklava
Process almonds in a food processor until a chunky crumb is reached. Mix sugar & ground cinnamon through almonds and set aside.
Melt the 250g butter and brush the baking tray well before you begin layering the sheets. Ensure only the clarified butter is used, not the milk solids. (see note below)
Open one packet of Filo Pastry onto the bench & place the empty baking tray on top of it. Using a sharp knife cut around the tray to ensure sheets will fit perfectly inside the tray. Set off cuts aside for later use.
Place the tray horizontally in front of you. Using three sheets of Fillo, line the base of the tray vertically leaving approximately 1 inch overhanging around all edges.
Then lay two sheets horizontally in the tray, buttering between each layer. Repeat layering and buttering horizontally with remainder of Fillo packet.
Place the nut mixture on top of the Fillo, pressing down to compact. Using your hands, sprinkle the top of the nuts with water – this helps the almonds stick together when cutting baklava once cooked.
Using the baking tray as a guide, trim the second packet of Fillo to size (sit the baking tray on top of the Fillo and cut around the base).
Place the Fillo scraps from both packets in the food processor until roughly chopped into small pieces. Place chopped Fillo on top of the nut mixture.
Drizzle any remaining butter (including the milk solids) on top of the Fillo scraps.
Fold the overhanging Fillo sheets over onto the nuts. This will ensure the nut mixture doesn’t fall out.
Lay the entire second packet of Fillo into the tray and apply pressure to compact.
Using a sharp knife, cut the baklava into small diamond shapes. To do this, firstly cut horizontal lines, approximately 1 inch apart. Then start at the top left of the tray cutting at a 45 degree angle towards the bottom of the tray, repeating until the whole tray is cut. Ensure you cut all the way through to the bottom of the baklava.
Melt the 335g butter and slowly pour it over the cut baklava, allowing it to seep through the incisions (ensure only the clarified butter is used, not the milk solids, otherwise it will burn).
Sprinkle the top with a small splash of water using your fingers. This will prevent it from burning immediately.
Bake in the oven at 180 deg C for 30 mins, until the baklava begins to puff up and brown. Reduce the heat to 160 deg C and bake for a further 1 hour. Reduce the heat to 140 deg C and bake for a further 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and pour the cold syrup over the hot baklava immediately.
Allow to cool in the tray before cutting and serving.
Watch along to learn Yiayia’s top tips for making a great Baklava