Syrian Cuisine

Baklava

Cuisine: Syrian Created by Amal Malouf

Sweets play an important role in the social customs of Syria as generous offerings of these sugary delights are brought by guests in appreciation of their friend’s hospitality. Pastry chefs and home-cooks make huge trays of sweets that are typically layers of filo pastry coated in ghee, or semolina cake with crushed nuts or clotted cream (ashta) fillings and dripping with sugar syrup. For a simpler treat the modest barazik biscuit, made with sesame seeds and pistachios, are a mor’ish alternative.

Amongst the vast array of pastries, cakes and biscuits loved in Syria, baklava stands out as an all time favourite, particularly when made with pistachios from Syria’s beautiful orchards.

You might also like our Turkish baklava recipe from Food Lovers’ Guide to Australia. Or view our culturally diverse dessert recipes.

Ingredients

350g ghee or unsalted butter
375g pack filo pastry
2-3 cups of walnuts or pistachio
2 tbsp of sugar
2 teaspoons orange blossom water
1 tsp of rose water

Syrup
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
½ tsp rose water
1/2 tsp orange blossom water
Squeeze of lemon juice

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Preparation

Melt the butter or ghee. Using a baking tray, 10 x 30cm, brush melted butter on base of the tray and start layering filo sheets, by placing one sheet down on top of the buttered surface below, and brush melted butter on the top side of each sheet.

Once half the filo sheets (about 20) are layered it’s time for the filling. To prepare the filling, crush the nuts slightly in a food processor. Remove the nuts and place in large bowl. Add sugar and orange blossom and rose water and mix.

Spread the nut filling over the top sheet to form an even layer to the edge of the tray.
Then continue the layering and buttering the sheets of filo pastry.

Carefully cut the pastry into diamond shapes. Pour some of the remaining butter over the pastry. Bake in a pre-heated oven 175-180ºC for about 55 minutes, or until golden brown.

While the pastry is baking, prepare the sugar syrup. Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil for 15 minutes. When the syrup becomes slightly viscous, remove from heat, add the rose water, orange blossom water and mix through, add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Pour the hot syrup over the hot pastry. Let it settle and cool before cutting it. Enjoy!

Syrian Restaurants

Displaying 1 of 1 Syrian Restaurants.

Restaurant		Suburb
1.	Gingerlee	Brunswick East

19 Aug 2011 04:12 AEST

Rose Hill

Bacchus Marsh

Ditto - frozen pastry disastrous

Great recipe - but use the fresh filo. The Pampas (Goodman Fielder) frozen pastry sticks together so had to throw it out. Complained to Goodman Fielder, but no-one responded, even though I receipted my email. So much for customer service!! Great recipe and easy to make. I doubled syrup ingredients as we like our baklava nice and gooey!! Great recipe

03 Jul 2011 05:36 AEST

Memo

Liverpool

Baklava

Baklava's is Turkish Origin not Syrian

23 Jun 2011 02:29 AEST

Jack

Collingwood

Rose & Orange blossom water

You'll find the orange blossom & rose water (and all other ingredients) at heaps of places. Any of the middle eastern nut/grains/pulses/grocery stores along sydney road in Coburg, there's a place on Broadway st in reservoir (station end), or Al Alayama(sp?) in Coburg (near corner of Sydney rd and Bell st) or the place on Smith Street in Collingwood called Sonsa Foods. So many places. You'll find it.

17 Apr 2011 03:35 AEST

Mari

Kinsbury

Orange-Blossom adn rosewater

Where can I find the orange blossom water and rose water? please I need your help with this...

30 Mar 2011 06:34 AEST

Sarah

Hills

Tasty!

Made these recently and bought a 375g pack of fresh filo..only had 19 sheets in it, so I had 11 sheets on the bottom and 8 on the top. Next time i'll but two packets. They tasted amazing, and so easy to do; i've never made anything with filo before and this was simple.

23 Oct 2010 04:08 AEST

Marie

Broome

ORANGE BLOSSOM WATER

Where does one find this? In a continental deli or is it hiden in Coles and Woolies somewhere?

16 Oct 2010 11:55 AEST

Auburn, NSW

Must try recipe!

This recipe is easy and failproof! Thank you so much for sharing it with us. One tip from me; if you are making the filling with walnuts you need to crush them finer than the pistachios. The layer of nuts i used (2 cups) was too thick so ill be using a little less next time. Otherwise the syrup was perfect and the layers crispy! Next, to master homemade pastry...

16 Oct 2010 07:04 AEST

Chris

Melbourne

I Heart Baklava

I haven't made Baklava for ~15 years and when I saw this episode was immediately motivated and just made another batch which tastes great. Two tips: 1/ Make the syrup first so it can cool while you make the rest of the dish. 2/ If you want to cut down the construction time when layering, have your significant other help out. I had my wife laying in the philo while I was buttering each layer. Here are some other variations: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/cookies/baklava-coll.html Yummmm!!

13 Sep 2010 12:09 AEST

Sydney

Disaster frozen pastry

Forgot to share with everybody to buy the fresh chilled filo in the pasta section of the supermarket instead of buying the frozen ones like I did. The frozen pastry were stuck to each other and tearing after thawing ( I had 2 attempts) but the fresh pastry was just perfect and beautifully light. Will only buy fresh from now on.

13 Sep 2010 08:40 AEST

Sydney

Delicious!

Very easy and a made a perfect baklava! My family said it was better than the bought ones. Big Win. Thanks for the recipe. I will be making this again for sure!

31 Aug 2010 10:56 AEST

Mahreen

Prairiewood

Yummy

Just made this today turned out verrrry good just like the shops sell it thank you for this recipe it was easy a little bit time consuming but well with the effort tuned out ver yummy I give this recipe 10/10 it's a non fail recipe a must try

12 Jul 2010 10:54 AEST

Rim

West End

Looks good

Hi looks really good but were do you find the orange blossom water?

02 Jun 2009 12:30 AEST

MayAnn

Parramatta

o yumm

im Philippino n man this my favorite .... o im still dreaming bout marrying a nice lebanese man so could eat lebanese food haha *sigh*

23 May 2009 10:46 AEST

Erina

Kirwan

WOW.......

everyone at work loves it! i pour in the syrup while hot, the pastry still crunchy and crispy even after 3 hours.

02 May 2009 11:17 AEST

moniiii...

Perth

fave

this is my FAVEEEE dessert! the local kebab place knows this and always gives me free baklava LOL

07 Apr 2009 11:12 AEST

Gemma

Castle Hill (Sydney)

One Word

YUM

04 Mar 2009 11:30 AEST

Tanisha Cowell

Narre Warren, VIC

Turned out perfect

Very time consuming, but well worth it. I used mixed nuts and half brown sugar (it's all I had in the pantry) and it still came out wonderful, maybe a little less sweet which was well appreciated. Will definitely make again.

28 Jan 2009 12:59 AEST

susann

Innisfail, North Queensland

Hot syrup worked for me

This tastes amazing... and was better when left to cool so all the syrup is absorbed and the flavours blend. I couldnt wait to taste it whilst hot, but it is so much better to let it cool, and even better the next day cold. Mine stayed crisp even in the fridge for 2 days, just covered in clingwrap over the tray it was baked in. Very authentic, fragrant, rich, sweet and buttery.

28 Jan 2009 10:15 AEST

Alanna

Gordon

Syrup

I followed the recipe exactly, and poured hot syrup on top of the hot baklava, and it was delicious!!!! I thought the pastry stayed crisp, and was a big hit with the family.

26 Jan 2009 09:02 AEST

Amal Malouf

Prahran

syrup

Hi lesley and hyam I have made backlava using both hot and cold syrup I was happy with both why don't you make them and judge for yourself and both stayed nice and crispy. I do believe the thickness of the syrup plays a big part in the crispiness of the pastry great to hear all your comments cheers Amal

23 Jan 2009 04:25 AEST

heyam

meadow heights

cold syrup

this is a great sweet dish, i love it! Lesley its important that the syrup is cold but that the pastry is hot from the oven. the pastry needs to be hot from the oven so that it will absorb the syrup. if both are cold then the syrup will just mainly sit ontop of the pastry. trust me im full lebanese not half, your freind was right though!

22 Jan 2009 09:45 AEST

Lesley Wickham

Bellingen

Syrup hot or cold?

Maeve said to pour the hot syrup over the baklava when it comes out of the oven. However, my friend who's Half Lebanese says it's important that the syrup should be cold otherwise the pastry turns to mush. I'm confused. Was this a mistake in the commentary or is it a genuine difference of approach?

22 Jan 2009 04:40 AEST

Aamena

Kuraby, QLD

Yummy!!!

I just tried this after watching it on SBS last night!, Oh My God!!! This is divine!!! well worth the effort, :)

22 Jan 2009 09:01 AEST

tina makssi

clayton

delicious

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