Turkish Baklava Recipe With Honey
This homemade Turkish baklava recipe with honey is a delicious and traditional dessert made with layers of buttered phyllo dough (filo), walnuts, and honey syrup. Turkish baklava makes the perfect dessert for any occasion and it’s sure to impress your family and guests. Follow my simple instructions to make your own baklava at home.
You will love this recipe for baklava it is truly fantastic. It’s super easy to follow, with clear instructions and it’s made with simple ingredients, the results are always the best and delicious. This baklava recipe always turns out perfectly every time, with its flaky, buttery layers of phyllo dough and nutty sweet filling. The honey syrup adds the perfect finishing touch to this dessert, bringing all of the flavors together in a harmonious balance. Whether you’re a novice in the kitchen or a seasoned baker, this recipe is sure to become a new favorite for you.
What Does Baklava Taste Like?
Turkish baklava is a rich and flavorful pastry with a unique and complex taste profile. It has a flaky, buttery texture from the thin layers of phyllo dough, and the walnuts combined with cinnamon add a crunchy, nutty, and aromatic flavor. I compare the taste of baklava to a pecan pie but it does have it’s own unique taste on its own.
Five Reasons You Will Love This Turkish Baklava Recipe
- It’s super delicious: Baklava is a decadent flavourful pastry dessert that is popular around the world love. The combination of flaky phyllo dough also known as filo, nutty filling, and sweet honey syrup makes it a truly irresistible dessert.
- Easy to make: While the appearance of baklava may seem intimidating, it’s actually quite simple to prepare and put together. With just a couple of simple ingredients, you can make a tray of this delicious Turkish baklava in no time.
- Versatile recipe: This Baklava recipe can be made with various nuts so that you can customize it to your liking. You can also play around with spices and sweeteners to create your own unique flavor.
- It’s an impressive dessert: Baklava is a show-stopping dessert that will impress your guests. It’s perfect to serve for holidays, celebrations, and dinner parties and it’s sure to be a hit and wow anyone who tries it.
- Economical to make: This baklava recipe uses simple and inexpensive ingredients readily available at grocery stores. It’s a great way to stretch your dollar and still enjoy a delicious traditional Middle Eastern treat.
Overview Of Baklava Ingredients
- Phyllo dough: Filo dough is a thin, paper-like pastry dough that is used in Turkey and throughout the Middle East to make a variety of sweet and savory dishes. In this recipe, we will be using ready-made phyllo dough. The dough is typically made with just three ingredients, flour, water, and salt, and requires some technical baker skills due to its unique process to achieve paper-thin dough consistency.
- Walnuts: I used raw walnuts as my choice of nut for this baklava recipe but any type of nuts can be used such as almonds, pecans, or pistachios. Just make sure to grind or coarsely chop your choice of nuts to make the filling.
- Sugar & Honey: I use a combination of sugar, honey, and water to make the syrup that is poured over the baklava. I love the balance of sweetness and flavor it gives. You can just use honey without the sugar by simply omitting it from the recipe.
- Cinnamon: I used cinnamon powder to add flavor to the filling, feel free to replace or combine the cinnamon with other spices, such as cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, or allspice.
- Lemon juice: Adding lemon juice to the sweet syrup helps to balance the sweetness and adds tanginess to the flavor of the baklava.
Good To Know
Here are a few things to keep in mind when making this recipe for baklava:
- Plan ahead and be sure to thaw the phyllo dough overnight completely in your refrigerator before using it. If it is even slightly frozen, it will be difficult to work with and break easily.
- Use unsalted melted butter to brush the phyllo dough layers, rather than oil. Butter will give the baklava a richer flavor and a more tender texture.
- Don’t be afraid to get creative with the baklava filling. You can use a combination of nuts such as walnuts and pistachio or another type of nuts that you like.
- Cut the baklava before baking it, using a sharp knife to make squared or diamond-shaped pieces as they are done traditionally. Precutting will make it easier to portion out the servings once it is baked and cooled.
- Don’t skip out on the sugar honey syrup! It may seem like an extra step, but it brings all of the flavors together and keep the baklava moist.
- Let the baklava cool completely before serving it. This will give the syrup enough time to soak into the filo pastry, it will also make it easier to cut before serving.
Ready to make this Turkish Baklava? Let’s do it!
Ingredients For Turkish Baklava
- 1 (16 oz) package phyllo dough sheets (450 grams)
- 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, melted (280 grams)
- 4 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (500 grams)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (4 grams)
- 1 1/4 cup honey
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 lemon rind
- 1/2 cup sugar
How To Make Turkish Baklava?
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C), set the oven rack to middle positions, and brush the bottom and sides of a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with melted butter.
- Chop the walnuts to a fine consistency or use a food processor and pulse 3-4 times.
- In a medium-sized bowl, add the walnuts and cinnamon and mix them together to combine using a spatula or whisk.
- Trim the phyllo sheets to the size of the baking pan, the best way to do this is to use a sharp knife. Keep the pastry dough cover at all times to avoid it from drying.
- Spread out one sheet of phyllo dough into the bottom of the baking pan and brush it with the melted butter. Repeat this process seven more times until you end up with eight butter filo sheets.
- Spread half of the walnut mixture evenly over the buttered phyllo dough.
- Place one sheet of phyllo dough on top of the walnuts and brush will the butter. Repeat by adding five more buttered sheets for a total of 6 sheets, then spread the remaining walnut filling.
- Add one phyllo sheet and brush with butter, repeat by buttering seven more sheets one at a time and laying them on top of each other for a total of 8 sheets.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the baklava into diamond-shaped pieces.
- Bake the baklava for 45-50 minutes, until it is golden brown.
- In the meantime prepare the baklava syrup. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, honey lemon rind, and lemon juice.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the syrup for 10 minutes.
- Once the baklava is finished baking, remove the lemon rind and immediately pour the honey syrup over the top of the pastry using a ladle.
- Let the baklava cool completely before serving.
- Enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Baklava A Turkish Or Greek Dessert?
Both Turkey and Greece claim that baklava is their own traditional dessert. It is one of the most popular pastries in many countries in the Middle East and Eastern Europe as well. It is believed that baklava originated during the Ottoman Empire, which included parts of both countries, Turkey and Greece.
How Do You Store Baklava?
Baklava should be stored at room temperature, it will keep for up to one week. It can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
Can Baklava Be Made Gluten-Free?
You make gluten-free baklava by using gluten-free phyllo dough which is available at specialty grocery stores. It is also possible to make a grain-free version of baklava using nut flours such as almond as the base layer instead of phyllo dough.
How To keep Baklava Crispy?
As a role of thumb keep the baklava stored in an airtight container at room temperature. If it is stored in the refrigerator, it may become soggy. Also, a quick refresh of the baklava in the oven before serving will help crisp up the layers of phyllo restoring the texture.
How Do You Pronounce Baklava?
Baklava is pronounced “buh-KLAH-vuh” or “buh-KLAH-vah”.
Turkish Baklava Recipe With Honey
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz package phyllo dough sheets (450 grams)
- 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter melted (280 grams)
- 4 1/2 cups chopped walnuts 500 grams
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 4 grams
- 1 1/4 cup honey
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 cup sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C), set the oven rack to middle positions, and brush the bottom and sides of a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with melted butter.
- Chop the walnuts to a fine consistency or use a food processor and pulse 3-4 times.
- In a medium-sized bowl, add the walnuts and cinnamon and mix them together to combine using a spatula or whisk.
- Trim the phyllo sheets to the size of the baking pan, the best way to do this is to use a sharp knife. Keep the pastry dough cover at all times to avoid it from drying.
- Spread out one sheet of phyllo dough into the bottom of the baking pan and brush it with the melted butter. Repeat this process seven more times until you end up with eight butter filo sheets.
- Spread half of the walnut mixture evenly over the buttered phyllo dough.
- Place one sheet of phyllo dough on top of the walnuts and brush will the butter. Repeat by adding five more buttered sheets for a total of 6 sheets, then spread the remaining walnut filling.
- Add one phyllo sheet and brush with butter, repeat by buttering seven more sheets one at a time and laying them on top of each other for a total of 8 sheets.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the baklava into diamond-shaped pieces.
- Bake the baklava for 45-50 minutes, until it is golden brown.
- In the meantime prepare the baklava syrup. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, honey, and lemon juice.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the syrup for 10 minutes.
- Once the baklava is finished baking, immediately pour the honey syrup over the top of the pastry using a ladle.
- Let the baklava cool completely before serving.
- Enjoy!