Baklava is another one of those Mediterranean foods that every country touching the sea claims to have invented in some form or another. While the sweet nut and filo pastry in its exact form is a more modern creation, the basic ingredients go back much further, to the ancient days of those same lands.
I thought it would be fun to make a more “primitive”baklava, forgoing all the fussing around with store-bought filo, using nuts indigenous to the ancient near east, and just honey for sweetening. Sugar doesn’t amount to more than a rare luxury good for many thousands of years.
HOMEMADE BAKLAVA
For the Dough:
500g All Purpose Flour
300ml water
1 tablsepoon coarse salt
1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup vegetable oil mixed together
For the filling:
2 cups mixed nuts (pictured walnuts and pistachios)
3 tbsp. honey
1 tablspoon freshly ground cinnamon.
For the syrup:
1 cup honey
1/2 cup water
2-4 cinnamon sticks
It starts with just flour and water (and salt of course). Combine and mix with a wooden spoon until all the flour is incorporated into a rough dough.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. No shortcuts! If you underknead, the dough will not stretch correctly later.
Divide the dough into four pieces, shape them into balls then flatten them into discs, roughly the size and thickness of your hand or a little bigger.
Combine butter and vegetable oil in a large bowl and layer the discs of dough so as much of their surfaces as possible are submerged in the mixture. It’s okay if they are sticking out a bit though.
Let rest for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling. Shell the nuts as necessary and grind them in a mortar and pestle or a food processor. You want a decent mixture of whole crushed pieces of nut with more powdery bits that got the most pulverized. But err on the side of not over crushing it.
Drizzle in and thoroughly mix three tablespoons of honey. Don’t worry about it not being too sweet. That’s where the syrup comes in later. This is just a touch of that, plus a good binder.
Preheat your oven to 400F.
By now, the dough has rested in the fats mixture, getting nice and elastic and oily. On a surface that isn’t wood,flatten out one of the discs with your hand, then brush with a heavy amount of the oil on both sides. Push it as flat as you can with just your hand, then let it relax for 5 minutes. Now, with a combination of more hand presses, plus literally lifting and stretching the dough until it’s thinner than paper, almost completely transparent and a rough circle 3 feet in diameter.
It seems tricky, but go slow, and gently stretch in all directions, and the buttery dough layer will shape up beautifully.
Now we have to fold it all up. Take one corner and fold it in, OVER the center. Then take the corner next to it and do the same, layering on top of the first fold. Go on to the next corner, working your way around the circle a total of 5 times to make a rough pentagon.
Set the pentagon aside and move on to the next disc of dough in the oil. Repeat what you just did, stretching the dough into a very large, super thin circle.
This time, place the first pentagon into the center of the dough, spooning half of the prepared filling on top. Fold the corners of the circle over the center, just like before, this time over the filling, closing the baklava up into a round or squarish pastry (I made one of each).
Bake at 400F for 40minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for two hours.
After the pastries have fully cooled, cut them up into any desired size, pressing close together. Let cool rest one more hour.
Make your honey syrup. Combine two parts honey to 1 part water and your cinnamon sticks, and bring to a light boil, stirring occasionally until the mixture is thicker and more reduced, about 20 minutes.
Pour the syrup over the baklava squares, making sure it runs down the cracks and sides. Let cool for 30 minutes, then cover. LET SET AT ROOM TEMPERATURE OVERNIGHT, or at least 8 hours.
Yes you really have to wait that long, for the crust and insides to absorb all that honey syrup. This last step is frustrating, but really important! The slow melding of syrup and pastry will give you a stable finished product, rich with flavor and the sweetness of honey.
Finally, after not TOO much work and a lot of waiting, it’s time to enjoy your Mediterranean treat. Probably not as cringingly sweet as you’re used to, but instead a salty, nutty, buttery, delicious bite of old world flavor.
ANTHROCHEF 