Baklava is a famous Middle Eastern dessert made by layering filo pastries and chopped nuts on top of each other before soaking it with sweet syrup. It is a guilty pleasure that should not be consumed all the time due to its high sugar content, but if you were going to indulge, better make it something so deliciously good like the Baklava.
With the right skill, you can easily make Baklava at home, and it will be a crowd-pleaser. So to help you wow your guest on your next celebration here is a simple Pistachio Baklava recipe that will make your guests stay longer.
Ingredients:
- 500g Filo Pastry sheets
- 130g Butter or Ghee
- 150g Pistachios, crushed
- 500g sugar
- 3 tablespoons of Lemon Juice
- ½ cup of vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon of Orange Blossom Water
Directions:
- Firstly, prepare the syrup by adding 1 ½ cup of water into a pot. Using low heat, boil the water and gently add sugar to the pot once the water starts to boil. Once all the sugar has been added in, and the mixture boils, add the lemon juice and Orange Blossom Water, stir, and turn off the heat. Set your syrup aside for later use.
- To prepare the Baklava, melt butter or ghee in a low heat pan and add the vegetable oil before turning off the heat and set aside. The next step is to cut your Filo Pastry sheets into the size of the pan that you have.
- Grease the pan with the melted butter and start layering your Filo Pastry. Make sure you grease each Filo Pastry before adding on a new Filo layer. Continue to make 8 layers of Filo Pastry. After the 8th layer, spread the crushed pistachio evenly on the Filo Pastry and continue to make another 8 layers of Filo Pastry.
- Continue Step 3 until you achieve the desired height of your Baklava. Typically, 3 sets of layers are sufficient. After the last layer of Filo Pastry, gently press on the Baklava to remove any air pockets. You can choose to garnish the top layer with more Pistachio.
- Set your oven to 180̊c. Cut your Baklava into similar square shapes and bake your Baklava in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until it is golden brown.
- Immediately after removing your Baklava from the oven, pour the syrup that was prepared earlier evenly on your baked Baklava. You can garnish each Baklava with more Pistachio.
- Leave your Baklava to cool at room temperature for about 3 hours, and you are ready to serve!