Greek Baklava Recipe [Baking in the new Kitchen]

The new kitchen has been finally put to use in the baking department. Last Friday, my friend Selma, sister Jasmina and I, baked a traditional Greek baklava, as well as a cherry pie (that I will post at a later time).

This baklava is luscious and  sweet (but not too sweet). The main ingredient are walnuts, and you can taste them all the way through.

The ingredients are:

For the Crust:
- 1 package of Phyllo dough (in sheets)
- melted butter for greasing and layering

For the Filling:
- 500 gr (17 ounces) of finely chopped walnuts
- 4 eggs
- 180 ml (3/4 cup) runny yogurt
- 360 ml (1 1/2 cup) vegetable oil
- 400 gr (1 3/4 cup) sugar
- 240 gr (1 cup ) semolina
- 1 tbsp baking powder

For the Sugar Syrup:
- 750 gr (3 cups) sugar
- 1 litar (33 ounces or 4 cups) water
- 1 lemon cut into slices

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The day started with all the ingredients on the kitchen counter. We measured everything out first and then it was time to bake!

1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F). Grind the walnuts finely. To them, add the yogurt, oil, eggs, sugar, baking powder and semolina and stir around.

2. Grease a pan with some butter or oil, and lay two sheets of Phyllo pastry on the bottom.

3. Spread some of the walnut mixture onto the Phyllo sheets, then top with 2 Phylo sheets and butter them. Repeat until you run out of mixture.

4. The top layer should be 4 Phyllo sheets. Cut into the pastry diagonally on both sides, so that you get a diamond shape (you can also cut out squares, it doesn't really matter).

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.

6. For the syrup combine the sugar, water and lemon slices in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, and let it simmer in low heat for 15 minutes. Let it cool down.

7. Pour the somewhat cooled syrup over the baked baklava, and let the baklava soak up the syrup. The baklava needs to rest for at least an hour, so that all the syrup is absorbed.

Serve it up and enjoy!

I hope you liked this recipe. If you have any questions feel free to comment below.

Have you tried any version of baklava before?

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