Friday 3 December 2010

Cashew Baklava with Orange Flower Syrup

I adapted this from a recipe found on the BBC website. The original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:
14 sheets filo pastry (I used chilled Jus-Rol).
Olive oil
225g cashew nuts, roughly chopped
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cardamon

For the syrup:
175g granulated sugar
150ml water
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp orange flower water

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease a 17cm x 28cm (11in x 7in) baking tray with olive oil. Lay eight sheets of filo pastry, one at a time, into the tray, brushing each sheet with oil before adding the next. In a clean bowl, mix together the nuts, sugar and cardamom and spread the mixture over the pastry in the tray. Layer up the remaining sheets on top of the nut mixture, brushing each sheet with oil, as before. Using a sharp knife, cut a criss-cross pattern into the top layers of the pastry. Place baklava in the preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes, then decrease the oven temperature to 150C/300F/Gas 2 and cook for an additional half hour to 40 minutes, or until the pastry is slightly puffed and golden on top. Do not allow the top to burn. Remove and allow to cool slightly.
For the syrup, heat the sugar, water, lemon juice and orange blossom water in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan and cook over a medium heat until the sugar has melted and a syrup is formed. (This will take about 20 minutes or so. Pour the syrup into the slits in the baklava and leave to cool. Cut into small diamond-shaped or square pieces and serve.

1 comment:

  1. bravo for attempting the daunting baklava! looks like you had satisfying results! yum!

    ReplyDelete