Baklava
Baklava is a dessert of two temperatures: pastry straight from the oven meets syrup that is completely cold. If both are hot the filo softens into a wet sponge; the temperature gap is what lets the syrup soak in while the layers stay crisp. The second rule is just as short: baklava is cut before baking, never after.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Syrup 20 min
- Nut filling 10 min
- Layering 30 min
- Baking 50 min
- Soaking 240 min
Step by step
0 / 9 doneMake the syrup and cool it completely
Boil the sugar with the water, cloves and lemon peel for 10 minutes without stirring, take it off the heat and only then stir in the honey and lemon juice. Leave it to cool completely. You make the syrup first precisely so it has time to go cold.
Ingredients: 400 g sugar · 300 ml water · 100 g honey · ½ pcs lemon · 3 pcs cloves
TipHoney added to boiling syrup loses its aroma — always off the heat.
Clarify the butter
Melt the butter gently, skim the foam and leave the cloudy sediment in the pan. The milk solids scorch over 50 minutes of baking and colour the filo unevenly, while the water in the butter makes it soggy. You want the clear fat only.
Ingredients: 500 g filo pastry · 250 g butter
Chop the nuts coarsely
Set aside 2 tablespoons of pistachios and grind them finely for dusting. Chop the rest of the nuts by hand to roughly the size of a pea — do not blitz them. Nut dust packs into a damp paste that glues the layers together and stops the filling from crunching. Mix with the sugar, cinnamon and cloves.
Ingredients: 250 g walnuts · 150 g pistachios · 50 g sugar · 1 tsp cinnamon · 1 pinch cloves
Coarse pieces, not dust — dust packs into paste.Build a base of 10 sheets
Line a 24×30 cm tin and stack the filo sheets, buttering every second one. Keep the rest under a damp cloth — uncovered it dries in two minutes and shatters when lifted. A sheet that tears in the middle of the stack does not matter at all, use it.
Ingredients: 500 g filo pastry · 250 g butter
Butter every second sheet, the rest stays covered.Add the nuts in two layers
Scatter half the nuts, cover with 5 buttered sheets, scatter the rest and finish with the last 10 sheets. If your pack has fewer sheets, keep the proportion: as many on top as on the base, half that in the middle. Two thinner layers instead of one thick one hold the pastry together so it does not slide apart when you cut it.
Ingredients: 250 g walnuts · 150 g pistachios · 50 g sugar · 1 tsp cinnamon · 1 pinch cloves
Cut into diamonds before baking
With a sharp knife cut all the way down to the base of the tin — strips first, then on the diagonal. This is the only moment it can be done cleanly: once baked, the layers shatter and the whole tray turns to crumbs. The cuts are also the route the syrup takes in.
Ingredients: 500 g filo pastry · 250 g butter
Down to the tin, with a knife, before the oven.Bake for 50 minutes at 170°C
Bake at 170°C until the top is deep gold, not pale — underbaked baklava tastes of raw flour. Watch the last 10 minutes: the gap between golden and burnt is only a few minutes here.
Ingredients: 500 g filo pastry · 250 g butter
Pour cold syrup over it straight from the oven
Take the tin out and immediately ladle all the cold syrup over it, slowly, along the cuts. You will hear it hiss. Hot pastry and cold syrup is the condition for crispness — reverse the pair and you get a soggy tray.
Ingredients: 400 g sugar · 300 ml water · 100 g honey · ½ pcs lemon · 3 pcs cloves
Cold syrup onto hot pastry — it has to hiss.Leave it to settle for hours
Leave it in the tin for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight, uncovered. The syrup needs time to reach the bottom and spread evenly. Eaten straight away, baklava is dry on top and swimming underneath. Dust with ground pistachio before serving.
Ingredients: 250 g walnuts · 150 g pistachios · 50 g sugar · 1 tsp cinnamon · 1 pinch cloves
Before you start
Never cover it
Keep baklava loosely, under a cloth or in an open dish. A sealed box or cling film traps steam that destroys the crispness in a single night.
All pistachio
An all-pistachio version is pricier and noticeably more delicate. Walnuts bring depth and a slight bitterness that balances the syrup — the mix is a deliberate choice, not a compromise.
Rose or orange blossom water
A tablespoon stirred into the cooled syrup pushes the baklava in a Levantine direction. Always add it cold: heat quickly drives the aroma off.
