Walnut-Pistachio Baklava - by Eric King
I just got back to Brooklyn after a weekend with my family. And there’s something about a combination of toddler nephews, a quiet neighborhood, a birthday party, and very little phone time that is both very exhausting but also energizing. Being away from New York gives me a lot of perspective on my life and all the work I do on easygayoven, and makes me excited to return to my rickety old apartment (if anyone thinks my life is glamorous, my roommate’s ceiling has been leaking on and off for a year-and-a-half!) and this sometimes-draining, new-ish career.
Which is good because this is go go go time in food blogger world as we deal with the onslaught of fall baking, and prep for Thanksgiving/Holiday madness. Read on for a not-totally-new family recipe and, for paid subscribers, a tipsheet that will help you get picture-perfect cookies.
As you all know, I’m a playlist fiend and I start a new one every month. I’ve included a seasonal bonus.
Playlist: Fall 2023
Think acoustic guitars gently strumming and whiny men singing. Vaguely nostalgic and melancholy! Sold!
Playlist: September 2023
My roommate said, “Yeah you’ve been listening to a lot of Lana.” But he said it in a concerned way. Also on here: Carrie Underwood, Robyn, MUNA, men in country.
Up on easygayoven.com: Pumpkin Coffee Cake Muffins
This recipe from last week’s newsletter is now up on the site! Pumpkin muffins with an easy (literally one extra step) streusel and a cinnamon-espresso-brown sugar filling — how bad could that be?
For this week’s recipe, I thought I would pull out another family recipe. It might not be the first time you’ve seen it, since we made it on my episode of The Secret Sauce with Dan Pelosi. So, yeah, I’m double-dipping, but there are a lot more of you now then when I first publicized it — and I wanted to make it easier for you to get the recipe somewhere that wasn’t just the caption of the Youtube video. I’m going to put it on my website, too, eventually.
This baklava, which my mom made my whole life (and most of her life!) one of a handful of culinary heirlooms that has been written down and passed on to me. My mother’s father’s family is from Lebanon, where baklava (or baklawa) is a traditional pastry made of paper thin sheets of phyllo layered with sugary, spiced nuts and absolutely drowned in syrup or honey.
When she was a teen, she wanted to surprise them with a homemade batch, so she tracked down a recipe and baked it — to raves! Her father received one every year on his birthday, as well as her aunt every Christmas. Nearly 50 years since she found the original in a magazine, this recipe has been changed, embellished, and rarely written down. And I almost feel guilty to say even I have made some minor tweaks — but isn’t that how all family recipes work?
It’s made all over that part of the world, and every culture and even family does it a little different, so don’t take this as a declarative, final baklava recipe to end all other recipes. If you do it differently, I would love to know! — but please don’t yell at me :)
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Makes: 24 slices
Ingredients:
1 box frozen phyllo dough sheets
1 cup salted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
5 ounces unsalted, raw walnuts
5 ounces shelled pistachios
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Kosher salt
1 cup honey
Directions:
The night before you make the baklava, or about 6-8 hours before, thaw the frozen phyllo in the refrigerator. Remove from the refrigerator and let rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour before starting. Depending on the size of the phyllo sheets, you may have to cut them to fit into a 9x13-inch tin.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Pulse walnuts and pistachios in a food processor until coarsely ground. Add sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and a pinch of salt to the ground nuts and pulse until just combined.
Melt butter in the microwave in a glass 2-quart measuring cup, or on the stove in a small saucepan over low heat.
Brush the bottom and sides of the tin with melted butter.
Carefully unroll phyllo sheets. Lay down one sheet in the tin so it totally covers the bottom. Gently brush the top of the sheet with butter. Repeat this step with five more sheets.
After the sixth layer, lay a clean dish towel over the unused phyllo to keep it from drying out. Evenly spread half of the nut mixture over the top.
Add six more phyllo sheets on top of the nut mixture, brushing each with melted butter.
Spread remaining nut mixture over top.
Add the final six sheets of phyllo, layering each with melted butter. Set aside remaining butter for later.
Using a sharp knife, score the phyllo in diamond shapes, trying to cut only halfway through the thickness of the baklava. Begin in one corner and cut across on a diagonal to the middle of the long side of the pan. Continue with parallel scoring on either side of the first cut, about 2-inches in thickness each. Now score the baklava vertically with three equal cuts. You may have to gently hold the phyllo in place as you do this.
Bake on the middle oven rack for 32 to 34 minutes. It is done once it’s golden brown on top
Pour the honey into the same container as the leftover butter. Heat in the microwave or over the stove for one minute. You want the honey to be thin but not boiling.
Give the honey a stir and pour it, evenly, over the baklava right out of the oven. Let the baklava cool at room temperature for at least 4 hours.
Note: You won’t hurt anything by adding more layers if you have a few additional sheets you want to use up. Try to save the best, unbroken phyllo sheets for the top layer.
Once we get through brown and orange food season (fall) it’s time for cookie season. But these techniques will help you level up your cookie game year ‘round.
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