Sofia's Kitchen - Thia Ourania's Baklava

This week we had a guest cook, our dear Thia Ourania, and she generously made her Bakalava for us to greedily scoff down.

Ingredients:
500g crushed walnuts
2 tbls castor sugar
2 tbls bread crumbs
1 tbls cinnamon
250g unsalted butter
2 tbls salted butter
1 pkt filo pastry (Brand Antonio)

Syrup:
2 cups water
1½ cups castor sugar
  
Method:
Preheat oven to 180C.

Melt butters and set aside to cool slightly.

Mix walnuts, bread crumbs, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

Prepare square or rectangle tepsi by brushing base with melted butter. Place one sheet of filo onto base and butter filo, repeat this process with 5 sheets of filo. Sprinkle nut mixture evenly over filo (aprox 4-5 tbls) and then place another sheet of filo, butter and repeat process. Use 2 sheets of filo in between nut mixture layers, remember to butter each sheet of filo. Repeat this process until you have the last 5 sheets of filo for the top layer. Finish the top layer with buttering each sheet including the top layer. Splatter water over the top as well to help the pastry flake up when cooked.

Using a sharp knife cut through the layers of filo with rows aprox 5 cm apart and then again diagnally to create diamond shape pieces.

Place tepsi into pre heated oven and cook until golden brown.

Place sugar and water into a pan and boil until sugar has disolved, allow to simmer until liquid has reduced by half and syrup slowly drips of a spoon. You can add some lemon juice to liquid at this stage if you prefer.

Once cooked allow baklava to cool completely before pouring the hot syrup over the top.

**alternative ingredients – replace walnuts with pistachio or hazelnuts and add rosewater to syrup instead of lemon for a more fragrant result