How to make Baklava in about 30mins

There are many variations of the recipe,  some use walnuts or almonds but I prefer pistachio nuts.

If you want that creamy texture don’t forget to use unsalted butter.

Once you have all the ingredients ready it really doesn’t take long to make these mouth-watering pastries.

Makes about 20 pastries

Ingredients

Filling

• 350g or 2 cups of shelled pistachio nuts
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon rosewater

Syrup

• 300ml water
• 450g sugar
• 1 tablespoon of rosewater
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pastry

• 450g / 1 packet of filo pastry
• 250g or 1 and 1/2 cups of unsalted melted butter

Method

1. Prehead oven to gas mark 4
2. Grease a 12 x 11 inch baking tray with butter
3. Mix together the ingredients for the filling

Make the syrup

• Put a pan on a medium heat and add the water and sugar and bring to boil for a few minutes.
• Add the rosewater and lemon juice and allow to cool

Making the pastry

1. Unwrap the filo pastry and cover with a damp tea-towel
2. Lay one sheet of the pastry into the baking tray and brush with the melted butter
3. Continue to do this until half the sheets of pastry are piled on top of each other
4. Scatter the pistachio nuts on top of the layers of pastry and then lay the other sheets on top. All the time brushing each sheet with butter
5. Now make diamond or square shape cuts on top with a sharp knife and put into the oven for about 20 minutes
6. For the last 10 minutes cook on a higher heat until the pastries are golden

When ready take out of the oven and pour over the cooled syrup (always add cool to hot never hot to hot) and leave to cool.

Then enjoy these mouth-watering pastries with your favorite tipple of either a glass of ice cold water or hot or cold coffee – yummy!

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