Mama Manno's Baklava Recipe

Mama Manno’s Baklava Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 box (1 lb) filo dough, defrosted according to directions on package
  • 1 lb butter (salted), or 1/2 lb butter and 1/2 lb margarine
  • 4 cups finely chopped walnuts (see note 1 below)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

Procedure

Prepare syrup (recipe below) and let cool while making baklava. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon together. Melt the butter in a bowl. Use some of the butter on a pastry brush to butter a 13x9 glass baking dish.Open and unroll filo roll. Keep the roll covered with a very slightly dampened towel all the time you’re not taking sheets off (see note 2 below).Peel one sheet of filo from the roll, place it on a flat surface, and brush it with melted butter. Use plenty of butter and cover the whole sheet but don’t leave pools of butter. (As you use butter don’t stir the solids up a lot, use the butter off the top.) Take another sheet, lay it on top of the first sheet, and butter it. Repeat with 2 more sheets of filo (total of 4 sheets, each buttered). Sprinkle 3/4 to 1 cup of nut mixture over this filo stack. Don’t put nuts closer than 1/2 inch to the short sides. Along one short side of the stack, fold over 1/2-inch of dough and butter the fold. Roll the stack into a log. Place the roll into the baking dish and butter the roll. Continue to make rolls with the rest of the filo, using 4 sheets for each.Using a sharp knife slice each roll diagonally into slices about 2 inches wide. Place baking dish in the bottom third of the oven and bake until very golden brown (“red”), about 25-30 minutes (use more time if necessary, be sure baklava is well-baked). Pour about 2 cups of cooled syrup over hot baklava. If all the syrup gets absorbed add more until a little is left around the rolls. When baklava is cool you make remove slices and place in paper muffin cups for serving.

Syrup

  • 4 cups sugar
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 Tbls honey
  • 1 Tbls lemon juice

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and boil for 15 minutes. Add honey and lemon juice and boil for 5 minutes more. Remove from heat and cool before pouring over hot baked baklava.

Notes

  1. The nuts should be in very small pieces - a hand-grinder works best. A food processor may be used but don’t let them get ground to powder.
  2. Handling the sheets of filo requires a gentle touch. Don’t worry about tears in the sheets, just place them and butter them and they will work fine. Keep remaining filo covered with the damp towel all the time - if the sheets dry out they become very brittle. If the sheets stick together too much the roll has becore too wet, so leave the towel off until they separate more easily.
  3. Pronounce “baklava” with the accent on the first syllable.