Honey and walnut baklava

Honey and walnut baklava
Inspired by the Menu magazine

Ingredients:

400 ml water
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup brown sugar
100 g honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice

100 g chopped almonds
50 g chopped pistachios
1 cup chopped walnuts
50 g of brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

150-180 g butter
1 packet of filo pastry (or 2, if you don’t plan to use the cuttings)

Preparation:

Make a syrup from the water, cinnamon, sugar, lemon juice and honey. Boil over medium heat about 15 minutes. Normally, the liquid should reduce in volume with 1 cm. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, clarify the butter over medium heat, then filter. Keep warm. Unroll the filo pastry on the work surface and cut out rounds with the diameter of the baking dish (28-30 cm), foreseeing 1 cm margin. Alternate 6 well buttered sheets of dough. Cuttings can be used between the rounds, saving one or two of them.

After the first 6 sheets of filo pastry, spread half of the filling. Prepare it by mixing in a bowl the three types of crushed nuts, a little brown sugar and cinnamon. Place over 6 new round pastry sheets (1-2 layers replaced by cuttings). Butter each. Spread out evenly the remaining stuffing. Finish the baklava with 6 new rounds of filo pastry.

Cut the baklava in advance to the desired shape. To get the effect of the one on the picture, cut the cake in 8 equal slices. Then cut each slice into two parallel diagonal lines. Pour over the remaining butter (following the cut lines and the edge).

Bake the baklava at 180°C for 55 minutes or until golden. Straight out of the oven, pour over the cooled syrup. Let stand 12 to 24 hours before serving.