This plant based baklava recipe combines layers of orange and cinnamon-soaked crisp filo pastry and a cinnamon-scented nut mixture with pistachios, almonds and walnuts.
Baklava is the perfect make-ahead dessert because it’s even better the next day
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
First, make the syrup as this has to be cold when used. Place the sugar, water, agave syrup, cinnamon stick and peels of orange zest in a medium saucepan with 300ml of water and bring to a gentle simmer. Let it simmer for 15 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by a third.
Take off the heat and let it completely cool. The syrup has to be cool when it is poured over the pastry otherwise the pastry will go soggy.
Decant the syrup into a pouring jug for later on.
Blitz the all the nuts in a food processor only until coarse, be careful not to over blend them into a paste. Put them into a bowl and mix in the cinnamon powder.
Melt the plant butter, and foil line a 30 x 20 cm metal baking tray, wipe it with a little melted butter using a pastry brush.
Gently unfold the filo and its is a hot kitchen cover with a slightly damp (not wet) tea towel to stop it cracking.
Measure the size of the tray and cut through the pile of leaves to make them the right size.
Set up the prep area with a the lined metal tray, the filo leaves, the melted butter, the blitzed nuts and a pastry brush
Now layer sheets of filo in the tin and brush each layer with melted butter. After 4 layers, spread an even a layer of half the nut mixture. Then repeat with 4 layers of filo and melted butter, then the rest of the nuts. Finally, finish with the last 4 layers of filo and melted butter.
Gently cut into triangles with a sharp knife, I held the pastry still with one hand and used a sawing action. Cut the pastry in half the long way then in quarters the short way. Then cut the rectangles across, making 16 triangles– ensure the cut goes right to the bottom.
Bake in the oven on a for 30–35 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp, reduce the temperature if the baklava looks as though it is browning too quickly.
Remove the baklava from the oven and pour half the cooled syrup over the top and down the cuts, leave to rest for 5 minutes, then pour over the remaining syrup.
Allow the baklava to cool before serving. Leaving them in the tray until needed.
half the nuts
and rest of nuts
into trianlges
the syrup and wait
Baclava
Equipment
- 1 30 x 20 metal baking tray
- 1 blender
- 1 pastry brush
- 2 saucepans one for the syrup one for the melted butter
Ingredients
- 100 g walnuts
- 100 g almonds
- 100 g pistachios
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 200 g plant butter
- 1 250 filo pastry – you need 12 leaves
- 300 g sugar
- 100 ml agave syrup
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 10 g orange zest – 2 peels of orange skin
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- First, make the syrup as this has to be cold when used. Place the sugar, water, agave, cinnamon stick and peels of orange zest in a medium saucepan with 300ml of water and bring to a gentle simmer. Let it simmer for 15 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by a third.
- Take off the heat and let it completely cool. The syrup has to be cool when it is poured over the pastry otherwise the pastry will go soggy.
- Decant the syrup into a pouring jug for later on.
- Blitz the all the nuts in a food processor only until coarse, be careful not to over blend them into a paste. Put them into a bowl and mix in the cinnamon powder.
- Melt the plant butter, at the same time foil line a 30 x 20 cm metal baking tray, wipe it with a little melted butter using a pastry brush. Gently unfold the filo and its is a hot kitchen cover with a slightly damp (not wet) tea towel to stop it cracking.
- set up the prep area with a the lined metal tray, the filo leaves, the melted butter, the blitzed nuts and a pastry brush
- Measure the size of the tray and cut through the pile of leaves to make them the right size.
- Now layer sheets of filo in the tin and brush each layer with melted butter. After 4 layers, spread even a layer of half the nut mixture. Then repeat with 4 layers of filo and melted butter, then the rest of the nuts. Finally, finish with the last 4 layers of filo and melted butter.
- Gently cut into triangles with a sharp knife, I held the pastry still with one hand and used a sawing action. Cut the pastry in half the long way then in quarters the short way. Then cut the rectangles across, making 16 triangles– ensure the cut goes right to the bottom.
- Bake in the oven on a for 30–35 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp, reduce the temperature if the baklava looks as though it is browning too quickly.
- Remove the baklava from the oven and pour half the cooled syrup over the top and down the cuts, leave to rest for 5 minutes, then pour over the remaining syrup.
- Allow the baklava to cool before serving. Leaving them in the tray until needed.
Nutrition
(All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more).