Rosewater Baklava Recipe

Baklava is a traditional Greek/Turkish pastry consisting of layers of crispy dough, chopped nuts and sweet honey syrup. Our syrup is not only flavored with honey, but with vanilla beans and rosewater, too.

Ingredients

• 1 pound (453 grams)

  raw, unsalted nuts, finely chopped*

• 1 teaspoon

  Ceylon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon

  freshly grated nutmeg

• 1 pound (453 grams) package

  thawed phyllo dough

• 1 ½ cups (339 grams)

  butter (or vegan butter, or vegan margarine), melted

• 1 cup (240 millitres)

  water

• 1 cup (200 grams)

  granulated sugar

• 1/2

  vanilla bean

• ½ cup (120 millitres)

  honey

• 1/4 teaspoon

  rosewater

• 1 teaspoon

  lemon juice

Directions

*We used pistachios, but a combination of walnuts and pecans are great too.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 or 175 degrees Celsius).

Coat finely chopped nuts with Ceylon cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg.

Grease an 18 x 13 inch baking sheet with melted butter.

Carefully lay two layers of fillo dough down, keeping remaining portion of dough covered with a wet towel (so that it does not dry out).

Brush fillo dough with butter and add two more layers, repeating this process until there are eight layers of fillo dough in the pan.

Brush top layer of fillo with butter and sprinkle ¼ cup (57 grams) finely chopped nuts, adding two more layers, then repeating this process until you have a remainder of eight, unused, sheets of fillo dough left.

Layer the top eight sheets the same way, you did the bottom, putting two sheets down at a time, brushing the top sheet with butter, then repeating. Make sure very top layer has been brushed with butter.

With a sharp knife, cut four even sections down the length of the pan and six even sections down the width of the pan.

Bake baklava in preheated oven for fifty minutes or until crisp and golden.

While baklava is baking, add granulated sugar and water to a small sauce pan.

Split half of vanilla bean lengthwise, with a small paring knife. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean half and add to pan along with the half pod, whisking to evenly distribute seeds.

Allow mixture to come to a boil and simmer on low heat for twenty minutes. Turn off heat.

Add honey, rosewater, and lemon juice, whisking to incorporate.

Strain syrup with a fine mesh sieve and pour evenly over baklava.

Dust top of baklava with remaining chopped nuts and wait fifteen minutes before eating for syrup to absorb.

This recipe freezes well when tightly wrapped.