Baklava, or: Pistaccio Rolls

So, weeks - nay, a month has passed since my last post and too many pastries have been baked, eaten, and digested unreported. Since my disastrous Orange Mascarpone Cake (recipe contrived by a sadist), the Fall Baking Challenge has required us to make foreign desserts, cookies, tarts, and pies. Today (the day this post was written) was the day for the latter two since I was falling behind, and since this is a day of catching up I might as well post an update gigantique. Well, split in three, because all those photos in one post would be overkill.

So. Baklava. The Turkish goodness. 

Personally, I love baklava but the baklava I know is soft, sweet, squishy, and moist with what I suspect is syrup. Quite different from the pistaccio rolls these things apparently are. 

Anyway, you wouldn't guess from the looks of it but this dessert took me around 5 hours to make. (Includes a trip to the supermarket for pistaccios and filo dough.) Most of the time went into the chopping of the nuts. 

The recipe recommended grinding them in a food processor, but since I don't own a food processor I had to go old school. This meant that the nuts didn't get as finely ground as they were supposed to, but the result was all the more satisfying.

This heap of nuts is nowhere near the actual amount 10 rolls require. It's far too much. I didn't want to waste anything, so I kept on folding pistaccio rolls until I'd run out. In the end I had about 25 rolls.

Also, a heads up: the folding is not as simple as the recipe makes it sound. Practice is needed for decent looking rolls because the amount of filling must be just right and evenly divided. On top of that the dough must be folded just right, otherwise the sheets might open again, or they break or tear, and everything spills out.

It's a bit of an art, actually. In total, I must have spent two hours measuring and folding, spilling butter and ground nuts all over the place. In the end I was so fed up I used the rest of the filling to make one big ass baklava roll, just to get it over and done with.

But all that work pays off. Even though it's not quite what you get at a Turkish bakery, it's actually very good. Crispy, crunchy, and sweet (imagine pistaccio flavor blended with honey and cinnamon), and it works great as finger food / party snacks.

They have been Dad Approved, so you can rest assured they make a good treat. Personally, I love the syrup that comes with it. It's delicious.

Without further ado, the recipe:

Baklava Rolls
Makes: recipe says 10 but if you're going to make bite-sized rolls definitely 20 to 30
Takes: 25 min +15 min baking. That is, if you're a Gordon Ramsay specialized in Turkish desserts. No, this will take a few hours.

Ingredients:

• 200 grams light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 tbsp honey
• 300 grams unsalted nuts like pistachios and almonds + 1 tbsp of unsalted ground pistacchios
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• a pinch of black pepper
• 100 grams of unsalted dairy butter
• 10 to 20 sheets of filo dough, depending on how you fill the rolls and what size the sheets are
• food processor or chopping knife
• parchment lined baking sheet

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, mix 100 ml water, 100 grams sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 - 15 min. Stir in honey and let cool. (This is the syrup.)
2. Preheat oven to 200°C or 392°F. Grind the nuts and mix with the sugar and spices.
3. Melt butter. Take a sheet of filo dough. Brush butter onto it and fill with nut mixture. Scoop nut mixture onto middle of the dough sheet. Roll the left part of the sheet over the nut mixture, fold sides over the filling, and roll again until closed. Brush butter onto all sides and place on baking sheet.
4. Bake for 10 - 15 min, or until golden-brown and ready. Put them on a dish and pour the syrup onto them. Sprinkle with ground pistachios. Serve lukewarm or on room temperature.