Rose baklava
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Rose baklava

By Tonia Buxton

Serve sweet, sticky squares of this cinnamon and almond-filled pastry as a light dessert to end a Greek dinner party or Sunday roast

  • Prep:30 mins
    Cook:45 mins
    plus resting
  • More effort

Nutrition per serving

  • kcal 476
  • fat 33g
  • saturates 4g
  • carbs 34g
  • sugars 25g
  • fibre 1g
  • protein 9g
  • salt 0.1g

Ingredients

  • Greek yogurt, to serve
  • 300g golden caster sugar
  • juice ½ lemon
  • 4 tbsp rosewater (not concentrated, see tip)
  • 1 large cinnamon stick
  • 75ml olive oil
  • 500g chopped almonds
  • 75g golden caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground cloves
  • 250g-270g pack filo pastry sheets
  • 150ml rosewater (not concentrated, see tip)

Tip

Be sparing with rosewater

If you can only find concentrated rosewater (in a 60ml bottle), use 2 tsp and dilute it in 250ml water. Use 4 tbsp of this diluted version for the syrup, and 150ml for the baklava.

Coating the filo pastry

Take your time over building the layers, carefully brushing each sheet of pastry with a good coating of olive oil - it's well worth the effort.

Method

  1. Put all the ingredients for the syrup in a heavy-based saucepan, and add 400ml cold water. Stir over a gentle heat to dissolve the sugar, then bring to a steady simmer for 10 mins or until it becomes slightly syrupy. Leave to cool.

  2. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Lightly brush the sides and base of a 23 x 33cm shallow ovenproof dish with a little of the oil.

  3. For the baklava, mix together the almonds, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and rosewater.

  4. Place 1 sheet of filo in the bottom of the dish and brush liberally with oil. (If the filo sheets are very large, cut them all in half before using.) Place another one on top and coat again with oil. Repeat this process of layering and brushing with oil until half of the filo sheets are used up. Now spread on the filling and cover with the remaining filo sheets, layering and oiling as before. Be sure to brush the top sheet with oil too. Score the top to form diamond-shaped slices.

  5. Bake in the oven for about 30 mins, increasing the heat for the last 5 mins to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 to give the pastry a light golden colour.

  6. Remove from the oven and immediately pour half the cooled rose syrup over the hot pastry. Leave to rest for at least 30 mins so the syrup can seep through the layers. Serve with big dollops of Greek yogurt and the remaning syrup.

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