In my family we eat, and we eat a LOT. We love pastries, and one favorite dessert that I can’t get enough of is Baklava, a Greek pastry that is a favorite at our holiday parties. It also makes a great hostess or welcome-new-neighbor gift (I fill a decorative plate high with this yummy sweet and wrap it in colorful saran wrap to present it). If you are looking for a unique and tasty dessert treat to serve your friends and family, here is my family’s original, homemade baklava recipe!
Penelope’s Homemade Baklava Recipe
Baklava Ingredients:
1 box phyllo dough sheets (1 lb)
1 1/2 lbs walnuts, chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar (separated into 1 cup and 1/2 cup portions)
2 tsps cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 stick salted butter, melted
1 cup honey
2 oz orange juice
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine walnuts, one cup sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a large bowl and mix well.
3. Place eight sheets of phyllo (one at a time) on the bottom of a two-inch deep aluminum pan, brushing each sheet with melted butter.
4. Cover phyllo sheets generously with walnut baklava mixture, and cover with eight more sheets of phyllo pastry sheets (again brushing each sheet with butter).
5. Bake baklava in oven for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from heat, cut into squares or triangles, and set aside.
6. Combine 1/2 cup remaining sugar, orange juice, and water in a saucepan over low heat until boiling and simmer for 15 minutes, then add honey and let simmer five more minutes. Pour syrup over baklava and allow to cool before serving.
Baklava freezes fabulously well, so if you make lots, just wrap up the extra well (airtight) and store for up to three months (thaw in refrigerator before eating, no reheating necessary or recommended). Baklava can also be frozen before baking (simply thaw recipe completed up to baking stage, bake and complete final steps), but I’ve never done this. To me, baklava started must be completed and eaten. Your homemade Greek baklava will be better than any you will get from a bakery or restaurant, so enjoy this delicious, sweet Hellenic treat!
I’ve never had this before but now I am wondering why!?!? It looks and sounds amazing!
Oh my goodness, it’s just so beautiful! It wouldn’t be the same without walnuts by chance, would it? I don’t like nuts in my baked goods.
I have always loved baklava! I’ve never tried making it, but I think I will now – thanks!!
OMG I love baklava., but I’ve never tried making it myself before. Thanks Penelope!
I’ve never made Baklava before, but this sounds so good and relatively easy, that I may be trying my hand at this very soon! Bookmarked. 🙂
That looks absolutely delicious! Thanks so much for sharing.
That looks really good, but maybe too complicated for me.
I have never tried baklava before. I had no idea what it was. Boy does it look yummy!
Oh that looks Quite yummy!
Looks super yummy!
My favorite dessert ever!!!
It looks so good. I love Baklava.
Wow that looks incredibly good. I’ve also never had Baklava so gonna give this a try!
I love Greek food, especially Baklava!! I’m going to ask hubs to make some using this recipe soon.
I love baklava! Thanks for sharing your recipe. I need to get around to making it myself someday instead of just buying it. 🙂
Hmm, now that looks so good, great job!
Wow, those look so yummy!! It sounds easy enough to make and my family would love it!!
Yummy this looks soooo good!!
yum!! I wish I didn’t have a nut allergy!
Oh my goodness, I need to try these! Thanks for sharing!
Oh wow that looks good! I love baklava, but have never made it before….
Just Stumbled onto your site, can’t wait to read more!
I don’t think I would attempt to make it, but it sure does look good!
This looks delicious and it has no eggs!! My son has a severe egg allergy making most sweets out of reach, but this is something I could make and we all could enjoy! Thanks for sharing!
Oh wow this looks amazing! *drool*
Sounds delicious and looks it too
Yummy – I love baklava! I’ve always been too intimidated in the past to try this though but I’m going to have to give this a go!
This post reminds me of my grandmother who passed away a few years ago, this was her favorite dish and she would make it every year for the holidays 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing! xoxo Kristi
That is so sweet 🙂 This is actually my grandmas recipe too!
That looks delicious!
Looks good, but no pistachios? I dunno!
making right now! how much water?!? am i missing it?
No water in a baklava recipe (Let me know how it turns out!)
i failed miserably :/
“6. Combine 1/2 cup remaining sugar, orange juice, and water in a saucepan over low heat…”
Oh no 🙁 What happened? Maybe I can help you through it for next time.
other recipes said to cut before cooking. I think that might have been a good plan, my crust was hard to keep in 1 piece. I was only able to back 30-45 min because my crust was getting very golden. The walnuts were dry and wouldn’t stay put when a piece was lifted out of pan. I didn’t see your response and other recipes also called for water so I estimated the water and it turned out super runny. I ended up pouring extra liquid out after it was in fridge overnight, then adding some straight honey to thicken and put back in oven for 25-ish min. I then poured out more liquid and headed to church for our international night potluck! it sat in fridge for a few hours during church. In the end it turned out okay, still crumbly, was hard to dish out. BUT IT TASTED GOOD!
Is that right…350* for 1&1/2 hours??? Seems really long, for the delicate filo. Im afraid its going to dry up, burn or ruin in some other way. I plan on making this tomorrow.
This is how I always made it growing up on an old oven, but on my new oven in my new home it was too long, so now I bake it for 50 minutes (I need to update my post- thank you!)