On the occasion of Krishna Janamasthmi (The birthday of Lord Krishna) everyone celebrate this day with lots of prayers , religious ceremony and Pera dessert. I thought to do some thing different. Krishna must be happy to see this surprise. I decide to make Baklava, a sweet desert full of chopped nuts ,wrapped in layers of phyllo pastry and soaked in sugar syrup scented with cinnamon ,cloves and cardamom. Really this is a cuisine from heaven. Healthy, delicious and mouthwatering preparation originated in Turkey, enjoyed in middle east and nowadays worldwide. I must say this delicacy is not serendipity rather an intelligent creation of a genius mind well aware of what combination would taste really amazing.I recommend everyone to try this at home. So let’s start the recipe .yum
Ingredients:For the dough:1 1/2 cup all purpose flour1/2 cup water or as required2 tablespoon water1/2 teaspoon vinegar
For the syrup:
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
5 to 6 cloves
2 cardamoms
For the filling:
1/3 cup almonds, coarsely powdered
1/3 cup raisins, crushed
1/3 cup pistachios , coarsely powdered
1/3 cup cashew nuts , coarsely powdered
1/4 cup castor sugar
2 teaspoon cardamom , crushed
1/3 cup clarified butter /ghee
Method:
Add the flour and salt in a bowl and mix or pulse in processor. Make a well in the center and add water, oil and vinegar.
Knead until it becomes soft , coat with oil and let it rest for 2 hours.
Make 5-6 balls from the dough , Place the dough on a floured surface and keep rolling out, dusting with flour whenever necessary, until you have rolled it out as thin as you can. Remember to dust your palms and the rolling pin with flour. Do this step while arranging the baklava or you can prepare the sheets earlier , in that case don’t forget to dust the rolled out sheets with flour to avoid sticking with each other.
For the syrup, combine all the ingredients for the syrup in a pan and bring it to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
Turn the heat to medium and let the syrup boil for 10 minutes. Stir frequently. Turn off the heat and strain . Keep the syrup aside until required.
Melt clarified butter or plain unsalted butter and brush sides of baking dish.Now make the filling by adding all the ingredients together. Place one sheet of Phyllo dough in the bottom of your baking dish. Brush it lightly with the ghee/ clarified butter.
Arrange three more sheets like this over one another . Brush the sheets properly with clarified butter.Add a uniform layer of nut mixture and then cover it with 4 layers of greased phyllo pastry sheets one by one. Then prepare another layer of nut mixture and cover it with four layer of phyllo sheets , similar to the procedure followed earlier.Using a very sharp knife, cut the Baklava from the top through to the bottom, into desired shape .
Bake this at 180C for about 30 minutes , gently pour the syrup evenly on the top of the hot Baklava making sure it goes through all the cuts. Pour as much as you can without letting the Baklava float in the syrup .
Store at room temperature .
Serve-6. Baking time -30 minutesNote: Cut the rolled out phyllo sheets into desired shape either with knife or pizza cutter .Make sure the syrup is warm enough while pouring over the baklava.The pastry should be thin enough that it become transparent to an extent where your palm would be visible to you while holding the sheet.
Personally, I love middle-eastern food including desserts 🙂 This one is one of the best sweet dish I have ever had!
yummy,delicious…recipe
wow, it has come out so well, its one of my fav sweet…
Lovely dessert.. Nice recipe sapana 🙂
Hi,I tried this recipe of Baklava.Looks very good and tastes also very delicious. I made just few changes…I used a store bought pastry sheets and used butter instead of ghee.Thanks for this recipe.Did not know that its that easy! 🙂
Hi, I tried this recipe today and the result is a beautiful, delcious looking sweet item.Thanks .
i tried this recipe form my turkey factory boss when was working and when we go to turkey i make sure to have this and bring back…now here in USA too am often getting this from mideast restaruants…i try this using store brought dough but so happy to see the way to make the dough at home
Happy Janamashtami, Sapna. Bakhlava is one of my favorite desserts, and your version looks delicious.
rich rich rich 😀
Good on you for stretching your own pastry; baklava looks awesome!
Amazed at your awesome efforts
Thanks for linking to the event. Looks rich and yummy, that's an awesome idea of making FILO pastry at home.thanks for sharing dear.
Royal dish..and you have explained the steps nicely…thanks for linking it
Sapna this looks delicious.
That is soooo hard to do… you have made it beautifully!!! Thanks for linking it to my event!! Looking for more yummy recipes!!
Sowmya
Super delicious!!!!
Ongoing event with giveaway.Do participate..
http://pramithalovecooking.blogspot.ae/2013/08/celebrating-my-1st-blog-anniversary.html
thanks dear for linking the recipe to my event
Yum Yum Yum…. I am gonna try this..
looks delicious
nice blog! your dishes ummmm thnks will try this looks. This is really healthy and delicious, restaurant in laxmi nagar