BAKLAVA WITH HOMEMADE PHYLLO

Recipe tested and photo: Gregor Jordaan

Phyllo:
453 g cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 – 4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup water OR 2 eggs beaten and ½ cup water
additional cake flour
Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl.
Mix in the oil by rubbing it in with your fingers.
Gradually mix in the water or the eggs with ½ cup water.
Knead the dough on a floured pastry board until smooth and elastic.
If necessary, add more flour to form a stiff dough.
Cover the dough and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into 16 balls, flatten each ball with a thin rolling pin on a floured pastry board and roll out to less than 1/8” (3 mm) thick.
If you want a very thin pastry sheet, roll each phyllo round the rolling pin and roll it lightly backwards and forwards until it becomes, not paper thin, but very thin. Use as required.

Baklava:
453 g homemade Phyllo sheets (or store bought)
1 – 1 ½ cups melted butter (1 cup might be enough)
453 g Walnuts / Almonds / Pecans, chopped fine
½ cup dry breadcrumbs
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
Syrup:
4 cups sugar
2 cups water
juice of one lemon
Place 1 pastry sheet in a well buttered 9” x 13” (23 x 33 cm) baking pan and brush the pastry with butter.
Place a second pastry sheet on top of the first and butter again, repeat until 6 layers of buttered pastry sheets are in the pan.
Mix the nuts of you choice, the breadcrumbs, sugar, cinnamon and cloves.
Sprinkle a layer of the nut mixture on top of the pastry sheets and place two buttered pastry sheets on top of the nut mixture.
Repeat in the same manner until all ingredients have been used, ending with 6 pastry sheets.
Brush the top pastry layer with the remaining butter and trim the edges with a sharp knife.
Cut diagonal lines the length of the pan to make diamond shaped slices.
Sprinkle with water and bake in a moderate preheated oven (350ºF / 177ºC) for about 1 hour or until the pastry is golden brown.
Prepare the syrup:
Boil the sugar, water and lemon juice for 10 minutes. Pour the hot syrup over the cooked baklava as soon as it comes out the oven.
Allow to stand several hours before serving.
Note: I found the baklava is less sweet, when I halved the syrup ingredients.