You stack buttered phyllo with spiced walnuts, bake it until gold, then drown it in honey syrup that must be cold when the pastry is hot. The sound it makes when you cut it is the point: a shatter, then the slow give of nuts and syrup. Eat a diamond with your fingers.
The Greek tin is walnut and cinnamon, sometimes almond, the syrup honey-lemon rather than rose. It appears at Christmas, at Easter, at the name day, cut into diamonds that keep.
Cold syrup on hot pastry, always. Bake at 340°F until deep gold, then pour slowly and listen to it drink. Cool completely before lifting the pieces, or they collapse in the hand.
Method
- 01
For the syrup, put the sugar, water, honey, lemon peel, lemon juice, and cinnamon stick in a saucepan and boil for 10 minutes, until it is slightly thickened and smells of honey and citrus. Then — this is important — cool it completely. Cold syrup on hot pastry, always; the other way round makes a sodden tin. Set it aside while you build the baklava: it should be at room temperature, pourable, and fragrant.
- 02
In a bowl, mix the chopped walnuts and almonds with the ground cinnamon and cloves, tossing until the spices are evenly distributed and every nut is faintly dusted. Smell it: warm, sweet, a little medicinal from the clove, which is as it should be. This is your filling, and it should not clump; if the nuts look wet or oily, they are fine — baklava is a rich thing. Keep the bowl at your elbow.
- 03
Brush a 9 × 13 inch tin with melted butter and keep the unused phyllo under a damp cloth as you work. Layer in 8 sheets, buttering each one right to the corners, then scatter over a layer of nuts and continue — 2 buttered sheets, then nuts — until the nuts are gone. Finish with 8 buttered sheets on top. Work with a light, quick hand: phyllo dries if you hesitate, and butter is what makes it shatter.
- 04
With a sharp knife, cut the baklava into diamonds, all the way through to the tin — you must cut before baking, or the phyllo will shatter into chaos when you try later. Wipe the knife between cuts if it drags. Bake at 340°F until deep gold, 45 to 50 minutes. You want a mahogany-gold top, not pale, not burnt, and the kitchen will smell of butter and toasting walnuts.
- 05
The moment the tin leaves the oven, pour the cold syrup slowly over the hot pastry, working in batches so it soaks evenly. Listen to it drink — a quiet hiss, then a settling, and that sound is the point. Cool the baklava completely before you lift out the pieces, or they will collapse in the hand. The top should still shatter; the interior should give, slow and honeyed.
