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To conclude this culinary journey, we decided to bring you one of the most famous Middle East desserts ever: baklava. Recipe taken from “Feast” by Anissa Helou, which we thank once again for the opportunity.

Ingredients (for 6/8 people):

For the syrup:

• 175 g of brown sugar
• half a spoonful of lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon of rose water
• 1 tablespoon of orange blossom water

To fill:

• 200 g of pistachio, pine nuts or walnuts
• 100 g of brown sugar
• 3/4 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon of orange blossom water
• 1 tablespoon of rose water

To assemble:

• 115 g of melted butter
• 12 sheets of phyllo dough (32 x 18 cm)

Preparation:

• For the syrup: put sugar, lemon juice and 75 ml of water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil at medium temperature, stirring constantly, let it boil for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and add rose water and orange blossom. Let it cool down.
• Heat the oven to 200 ° C
• For the filling: Put the walnuts in the mixer until they are medium-finely chopped. Transfer them to a medium bowl to mix them. Add sugar, cinnamon, rose water and orange blossom and mix well.

• Sprinkle an 18 x 32 cm baking dish with a little melted butter. Put a sheet of phyllo dough on the bottom and sprinkle with melted butter. Place 5 more sheets of dillo on top, sprinkling each with melted butter for a total of 6 sheets.
• Spread the nut nourishment equally on the phyllo dough and cover everything with another 6 sheets, making sure to wet each of them with melted butter. Pour all the remaining butter on the dough and cut it into medium-sized diamonds or thin rectangles. Make sure to make clean cuts to form many filled pastries.
• Cook for 20/25 minutes, or until they become crispy and golden. Remove them from the oven and wait a few minutes before pouring the cold syrup on the baklavas. Serve at room temperature. Baklavas will remain good for a couple of days if closed in an airtight container.

Note: Baklavas are an extremely popular type of dessert throughout the Mashreq, for this reason each country has given its “touch” in their realization. The recipe you have read is the Syrian-Lebanese variant, in the Turkish one, for example, the syrup does not have aromas and is given greater emphasis on browning rather than crunchiness.

If you liked the recipe, you can buy the book on Amazon, tomorrow we’ll talk about Feast, thus concluding the part of the recipe book.