A sweet favourite: Niki Louca’s authentic baklava recipe

Niki Louca from My Greek Kitchen shares her favourite recipe for baklava with The Greek Herald. You can follow her on Instagram @mygreekkitchen for more!

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of Filo pastry – Antonio brand
• light olive oil
• 300-350 grams of ground almonds
• 1tbls caster sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• generous pinch of nutmeg
• pinch of ground clove

Syrup:

• 4 cups water
• 4 cups white sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 cloves
• 1 piece of lemon rind

Method:

1. First prepare your syrup.  Combine all syrup ingredients together and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat and cool completely.  You can prepare this days in advance.  It doesn’t go off.  Any excess store in a jar, it keeps for weeks.
2. Combine all spices, and sugar with almonds.  Mix well and set aside.  Put some oil in a cup and have a pastry brush ready.
3. Gently unwrap filo pastry and try to work as quickly as you can otherwise the pastry will dry out.
4. Brush the top piece of filo with a little oil to help it stick to the next piece.  Turn the top sheet(oiled side down) to the second sheet and repeat by oiling.  Keep doing this till you have done 5 sheets.  On the 5^th piece of filo, brush with oil generously because we want the almond mixture to stick.
5. Spread 3-4 tablespoons of the almond mixture evenly over the filo sheet.
6. Pick up the 5 sheets and gently but firmly roll them into one big roll.
7. Repeat till all sheets of the packet are done.
8. Put them in your greased tray and brush them on top with more oil.
9. Score them deeply into sizes you wish.
10. Bake in a moderate oven (170C) – fan force/180C no fan till golden brown.
11. Once out of the oven and very hot, pour the cooled syrup over it – it will sizzle.  Pour enough to create a puddle in the baking dish.  Keep an eye because once its absorbed you will need to add more, and you must make sure there is enough syrup in the dish so its stays moist.  Otherwise it will dry up.
12.  Once its cooled, cut through properly and enjoy.

Niki Louca runs cooking classes in Melbourne. For more or to book classes visit My Greek Kitchen at www.mygreekkitchen.com.au or Instagram @mygreekkitchen. You can email Niki at: niki@mygreekkitchen.com.au.