Easy Baklava Recipe

Some of the best Baklava recipes out there take almost an entire day to make. I have one question, "why?" Let's make Baklava in 15 minutes instead. Sound good?  I've had the pleasure of making Baklava many times over the years all while using a simple technique.

Most people see making Baklava as labor-intensive and overall hard to make. After today, you'll see it's not really hard to make great Baklava.

Baklava is easy to make using a good technique

What Is Baklava?

Baklava (/ˈbɑːkləvɑː/, /bɑːkləˈvɑː/, or /bəˈklɑːvə/; ) is a rich, sweet dessert pastry made of layers of phyllo filled with chopped nuts and sweetened and held together with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the Levant, the Caucasus, Balkans, Maghreb, and of Central and West Asia.

Baklava is made from layer after layer of Phyllo dough with an assortment of nuts between each layer, then finished with honey syrup.

(This recipe does not add extra refined sugars WinWin/).

The key is the order of the Phyllo dough. Not simply adding Phyllo dough layers, then adding nuts and repeat. There is a system. You should watch the video below to see for yourself how the layers come together to create some of the best Baklava ever.

How-To Video: How to make Easy Baklava Recipe

Photo - Baked Baklava, waiting for the honey syrup 🙂 See how crispy it is?

This technique allows us to pour warm syrup all over the baklava and still be super crispy.

Step by Step - How to Make (15-Minute) Baklava, Plus Cook Time

To start the Baklava process, butter a 9 by 13 casserole dish and try to cover every bit of the casserole dish.

Roll Out the Phyllo Dough

If you are not able to work quickly you'll need to cover the Phyllo dough with a lightly damp towel. Reason: so the phyllo dough does not dry out. The drying encourages cracks in the phyllo dough. I did not cover mine this time and usually don't.  I was finished in about 10 minutes. Not long enough to cause drying-out issues.

Layout the first piece of Phyllo dough onto a 9 by 13 buttered casserole dish

Cover the phyllo dough with melted butter 

No need to overdo it with butter. This is KEY to success. You'll be adding enough over each layer that complete coverage of the phyllo dough equals a mistake. - Watch the video to see the full technique. Just cover enough of each sheet of phyllo dough. Enough being about 70% of each sheet.

Add a second layer of phyllo dough

Add the first layer of Pecans, Walnuts & Pistachios

As we create the layers of stacked Phyllo dough here's the idea. We want the lowest layers of the Baklava to have the most nuts. Think of it as creating the base. And as we move higher in the phyllo dough layers we'll use less and less nuts.

Repeat the process above until you have 4 sheets of phyllo dough left

Lay the last 4 or 5 sheets on top of the other buttered phyllo layers. The last 4 or 5 sheets do NOT get another coating of butter. Yet

After adding the last 4 or 5 sheets of non-buttered phyllo dough then, it's time to cut the baklava into serving sizes/individual pieces

There are a few options with the way you decided to cut the baklava.

1. Cutting straight lines down the casserole dish running the cuts lengthwise, then making crosscuts. A more traditional cut
2. The second is making a crosscut from corner to corner, then adding additional slices parallel to the first cut. Then running cross-cuts again, the first cuts perpendicular. Crosshatch pattern.

Next, add butter to the tops of all the pieces of Phyllo dough. This will ensure beautiful golden brown baklava.

Optional: Add pistachios to the top before the oven.

Note: the pistachios will take on a bit of color and offer a nutty toasted favor. I suggest adding after the syrup is added and allowed to cool a bit.

Into the oven. I cooked mine @ 350 degrees for around 25-30 minutes. You'll want to read the instructions on your package of phyllo dough and monitor the cooking process.

Make sure to check on it after 10-12 minutes. Keep looking to make sure you do not burn the phyllo dough. Baklava can go from perfect to burnt in only a short few minutes or two. So do not trust the package fully. You must keep an eye on the baking process until you're familiar with the cook times.

Making the Baklava Honey Syrup

Add high-quality butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey & salt

Once out of the oven, allow the baklava to cool for about 5 to 10 minutes. Then pour on as much or as little syrup as you like. While pouring, think about the syrup wanting to soak into the baklava and move to the bottom of the casserole dish.

You'll be surprised how the syrup doesn't destroy the crispiness on top of the baklava. Be sure to pour enough to cover each piece. I like covering every piece once, then going over each piece a second time. Some people enjoy a thinner syrup. If so, add a bit of water...

Baklava fresh from the oven. The whole house smells so divine.

( Photo: No Syrup added yet)

After 5 to 10 minutes of cooling down - Add the syrup

📖 Recipe

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.