Baklava

Ingredients

Pastry

• 500 gthin phyllo sheets, about 20 leaves
• 300 gunsalted butter, clarified

Filling

• 500 gwalnuts, coarsely chopped, not ground
• 80 gcaster sugar
• 1 tspground cinnamon
• ¼ tspground clove

Syrup

• 600 gsugar
• 500 mlwater
• 2 tbsplemon juice
• 1strip lemon peel
• 1 tbsphoney

Directions

1. Clarify the butter by melting it gently and pouring off the clear fat, leaving the milky solids behind; those solids burn and make the layers taste bitter.
2. Mix the walnuts with the sugar, cinnamon and clove. Keep the pieces the size of coarse gravel so the filling stays crunchy.
3. Butter a 30 by 25 cm metal tray. Lay 8 phyllo sheets in, brushing each one with butter and letting the edges climb the sides.
4. Spread half the walnut mixture, cover with 4 buttered sheets, spread the rest, then finish with the remaining 8 sheets, buttering as you go and buttering the top generously.
5. Cut all the way to the base before baking, first in parallel lines 4 cm apart, then diagonally across to make lozenges. Cutting after baking shatters the pastry.
6. Bake at 160°C (325°F) fan for 55 to 65 minutes, until the whole surface is an even deep amber and the pastry sounds crisp when tapped with a knife.
7. While it bakes, boil the sugar, water, lemon juice and peel for 10 minutes to a light syrup, stir in the honey and take it off the heat.
8. Pour the cooled syrup over the hot baklava, slowly and evenly, until it stops absorbing; it should hiss steadily. Leave uncovered at room temperature for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight, before lifting out the pieces.

Technique

• One of the two must be cold. Hot syrup on hot pastry steams the layers soft; cold syrup on hot pastry keeps them crisp. Albanian bakers use cold syrup.
• Walnut, not pistachio, is the Albanian filling, and the baklava is cut in lozenges rather than squares. It appears at New Year and at weddings on a stacked tray.
• Never cover it while it soaks and never refrigerate it. Trapped steam softens the top leaves within an hour.

Substitutions

• Half walnut and half almond is common in the south and gives a milder, sweeter filling.
• If you cannot get very thin phyllo, use the thicker country style and drop to 6 sheets top and bottom, adding 10 minutes to the bake.

Variations

• Baklava me arra dhe mjaltë, the Gjirokastër style, replaces a third of the sugar syrup with mountain honey.
• Some Shkodër families layer in a spoon of ground rusk between the nut layers to hold the syrup.

History

A layered, syrup-soaked pastry whose exact birthplace is genuinely contested among the many cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, each with a claim: Ottoman Turkish court kitchens in Istanbul, Byzantine Greek predecessors built on an even older honey-and-nut pastry called gastris, and separate Levantine traditions all fed into what became baklava. The clearest documented point is the Topkapi Palace’s own kitchen records, which describe a version served to the Janissary guard each Ramadan from at least the 15th century onward, and from that Ottoman court the dish spread with the empire itself, taking a different name and slightly different nut, syrup and pastry-thickness in almost every region it reached, Albania included.

Frequently asked questions

What is Baklava?

Baklava is a dessert from Albania: walnut phyllo in syrup, New Year’s favorite. A layered, syrup-soaked pastry whose exact birthplace is genuinely contested among the many cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, each with a claim: Ottoman Turkish court kitchens in Istanbul, Byzantine Greek predecessors built on an even older honey-and-nut pastry called gastris, and separate Levantine traditions all fed into what became baklava. The clearest documented point is the Topkapi Palace’s own kitchen records, which describe a version served to the Janissary guard each Ramadan from at least the 15th century onward, and from that Ottoman court the dish spread with the empire itself, taking a different name and slightly different nut, syrup and pastry-thickness in almost every region it reached, Albania included.

How long does Baklava take to make?

Baklava takes 40 min of preparation and 1 hr plus 6 hr soaking of cooking. The recipe makes 1 tray, 30 lozenges. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Baklava?

Yes, within limits. Half walnut and half almond is common in the south and gives a milder, sweeter filling. If you cannot get very thin phyllo, use the thicker country style and drop to 6 sheets top and bottom, adding 10 minutes to the bake.

What is the most important thing to get right in Baklava?

Bake at 160°C (325°F) fan for 55 to 65 minutes, until the whole surface is an even deep amber and the pastry sounds crisp when tapped with a knife.