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Pistachio baklava recipe
- Cuisine: Turkish
- Makes 42 squares
At Efendy, Somer uses Turkish or Iranian pistachios and makes the filo pastry from scratch, rolling it so thin that you could read a newspaper through it. For ease and convenience, we use store-bought filo. For best results, refrigerate the baklava overnight to allow the syrup to soak into the pastry. Store any leftovers in a single layer separated by baking paper, in an airtight container for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 1 month.
Ingredients
550g (2½ cups) caster sugar1 tbsp lemon juice
200ml milk
50g fine semolina
250g (1 cup) ghee (clarified butter), melted, plus extra, to grease
375g pack filo pastry
300g shelled unsalted pistachios, very finely chopped
Preparation
Place 400ml water and 500g sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high, add lemon juice and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes or until syrup has reduced by one-third. Transfer to a heatproof jug and set aside to cool.Place milk and remaining 50g sugar in a small pan over medium heat and stir for 1 minute or until sugar dissolves. Scatter with semolina and whisk until combined. Bring mixture to the boil and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Transfer to a small bowl and cover surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Cool.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a 30cm x 20cm lamington pan with ghee. Cut the entire stack of filo pastry to fit the base of the pan and discard the trimmings.
Working with 3 sheets of filo at a time and keeping the remaining filo covered with a lightly damp tea towel, brush each sheet of filo liberally with melted ghee and layer in pan. Scatter over 1 tsp pistachios. Repeat brushing and layering filo, and scattering over nuts four more times.
Spoon semolina mixture over stacked filo sheets and spread mixture evenly. Scatter over 230g pistachios.
Still working with 3 sheets of filo pastry at a time, repeat brushing each sheet with ghee and layering in pan, and scattering over 1 tsp pistachios between each stacked layer twice more. Top with remaining sheets of filo (you should have about 10), brushing each sheet with ghee.
Press the top of the baklava lightly to seal layers together. Cut into 42 squares, then drizzle with remaining ghee.
Bake for 40 minutes or until pastry is crisp and golden. Pour over sugar syrup, scatter with remaining pistachios and refrigerate until cold before serving.
DRINK Hare Turkish coffee cream liqueur
As seen in Feast magazine, Issue 8, pg96.
Photography by Alan Benson.
If you enjoyed this Pistachio baklava recipe then browse more Turkish recipes, dessert recipes, baking recipes, egg-free recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.
Turkish Restaurants
Displaying 10 of 89 Turkish Restaurants.
| Restaurant | Book Online | Suburb | |
| 1. | Turkish Delight | Belconnen | |
| 2. | Turkish Pide House | Jamison | |
| 3. | Pasha's | Hobart | |
| 4. | Efes One Turkish Restaurant | Albion | |
| 5. | Pinarbasi Restaurant | Coburg | |
| 6. | The Kilim Turkish Restaurant | Richmond | |
| 7. | Erciyes Restaurant | Redfern | |
| 8. | Sahara Turkish Restaurant Burwood | Burwood | |
| 9. | Ottoman Cuisine | Barton | |
| 10. | Merhaba Turkish Cuisine Restaurant | Auburn |
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