From the bakery

Pistachio baklava

Name: Pistachio baklava
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 20 servings
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: 1 packet filo pastry, thawed; 400g shelled green pistachios, finely ground; 1 cup unsalted butter, clarified and warm; 2 cups sugar; 1 1/4 cups water; 2 tbsp honey; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1 tbsp rose water

rose & honey syrup

Paper-thin filo layered by hand with green pistachios and bathed in rose-honey syrup — the bakery bestseller, twenty years running.

Prep: 1 hr
Cook: 35 min
Total: 1 hr 30 min
Serves: 20
Level: Involved

photo coming soon

Hot pastry, cold syrup — that’s the one rule you cannot break, and the one everyone breaks the first time. Get it wrong and the baklava turns to glue; get it right and every layer stays shatteringly crisp.

We sold more of this than anything else at the shop. People asked for the recipe for years and I never wrote it down — partly because there’s no real secret beyond buttering every sheet and being patient with the syrup. Now it’s here.

Ingredients

1 packet filo pastry, thawed
400g shelled green pistachios, finely ground
1 cup unsalted butter, clarified and warm
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups water
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp rose water

Method

Make the syrup first: simmer sugar, water, honey and lemon for 10 minutes, stir in the rose water, and cool completely.
Brush a tray with clarified butter and lay down half the filo, buttering every single sheet.
Spread the ground pistachios in an even layer.
Top with the remaining filo, again buttering every sheet, and press down gently.
Cut into diamonds all the way through with a sharp knife before baking.
Bake at 170°C / 340°F for 35 minutes, until evenly golden and crisp.
Pour the cold syrup over the hot baklava and leave it for several hours to drink it in.