Pistachio and Melon Seeds Baklava

This has been sitting in my reading list for a while now and what interests me about this is the use of filo pastry. I have never worked with filo pastry before and I thought this will be interesting to try. This recipe is from Anna Olson, a Canadian baker who inspires me and her recipes always trustworthy. Here’s the recipe, adapted slightly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Makes about 16 individual rounds)

Ingredients

For the filling

• 1/2 cup pistachios
• 1/2 cup melon seeds
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp mixed spice

For assembly

• 170g unsalted butter, melted
• 18 sheets filo pastry

Syrup 

• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp mixed spice

Method

1. Melt the butter and brush some of the melted butter on the baking tin. I used an 8 inch square tin.
2. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
3. Roughly chop the nuts and stir spice and sugar together with the nuts. You can use a processor to process the nuts, sugar and spice together.
4. Cut the filo pastry in half and cover with a damp cloth to prevent drying out.
5. On a sheet of filo pastry, lightly brush on the melted butter.
6. Place another filo pastry over the first and brush on melted butter just like for the first layer.
7. Using the rounded long handle of a wooden spoon, roll the short part of filo pastry over the handle of the spoon and pull the rolled pastry off the spoon. You will end up with a messy, ruffled long pastry. join the ends of the ruffled pastry into a circle and place in the buttered baking tin. Repeat for the rest of the pastry. You will end up with about 16 rounds.
8. Brush the tops of the filo pastry with the remaining butter.
9. Spoon a generous amount of nuts filling into the center of each rounds.
10. Bake in preheated oven of 180 degrees for about 30 minutes, until golden brown.
11. As the filo pastry is baking, prepare the syrup.
12. In a pot, place sugar, honey, spice in the pot.
13. Half the lemon and squeeze the juice of the lemon into the pot and place the lemons in the pot.
14. Bring to boil and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the lemon halves.
15. When the pastry is baked, spoon hot syrup over the pastry and allow to cool to room temperature before enjoying.