Holiday Walnut Baklava with Homemade Syrup
Walnut Baklava is a holiday tradition! Layers of butter pastry loaded with ground walnuts drenched in homemade simple syrup that's scented with orange blossom water and rose water.
Servings: 26 -30 pieces
Ingredients
Baklava:
- 4 cups 1 lb. ground California Walnuts
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 ½ sticks 1 ¼ cups melted butter
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 lb. box phyllo dough thawed in refrigerator overnight
Syrup:
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon orange blossom water
- 2 tablespoons rose water
Instructions
Syrup:
- Combine the sugar, water, lemon juice, and honey in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. When it reaches a boil, lower the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the orange blossom water and rose water. Let cool.
Baklava:
- Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- In a large bowl, add the ground walnuts, sugar, 4 tablespoons melted butter, and ground cinnamon, stir to combine. Your filling should be coarse, almost like a streusel or a crumb topping.
- Lightly butter or spray the inside of a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.
- Working on a large clean surface, unroll the phyllo dough and lay flat. Place your baking pan on top of the phyllo and trim off any excess. Cover the phyllo with a damp towel so it doesn't dry out. Keep it covered as much as possible.
Place the first sheet of phyllo in the baking pan, brush with butter until the entire surface is evenly coated. Place a second sheet of phyllo on top and again brush with melted butter. You'll do this a total of 10 times. Then, sprinkle on ¾ cups (or eyeball about 1/5) of the ground walnut mixture. Here's the order:
- Brush the top of the last layer of phyllo with melted butter. Cut into 4 wide strips, turn the pan and cut diagonally to form a diamond pattern. Bake the baklava for 40-50 minutes or until it's golden brown on top.
- Immediately pour the simple syrup over the baklava while it's still hot. Let cool completely to room temperature. For best results, let sit at least 6-8 hours and ideally, overnight. Cover loosely with a cloth once it's room temperature. Garnish with additional ground walnuts as desired. Baklava can be stored at room temperature for about 1- 1 ½ weeks.
Notes
- If you don't have ground walnuts, all you need to do is toss them into a food processor and pulse until ground.
- You'll notice that sometimes, the phyllo sheet starts sliding around over the nut layer, tap your butter-filled pastry brush rather than brushing that layer if this happens to you.
- Note that the baklava will start getting softer after the first couple days. Perfectly fine to eat, but the phyllo just starts losing a little crispness.
- 10 sheets of buttered phyllo, ¾ cup filling
- 5 sheets of buttered phyllo, ¾ cup filling
- 5 sheets of buttered phyllo, ¾ cup filling
- 5 sheets of buttered phyllo, ¾ cup filling
- 5 sheets of buttered phyllo, ¾ cup filling
- 10 sheets of buttered phyllo, ¾ cup filling
