Middle Eastern Baklawa (Easy Baklava Recipe) | Hilda's Kitchen Blog (2024)

Learn how to make THE BEST Middle Eastern Baklawa with this Easy Recipe! Buttery, flaky, Fillo dough, is layered with ground pistachios, almonds, and walnuts and drenched in delicious rosewater-flavored syrup. This Baklawa is flavored with cardamom and a hint of cinnamon. So pour yourself a cup of Turkish coffee or Chai and let's get baking!

Why This Recipe works

Homemade Baklawa might seem too intimidating to tackle for some, but you're about to discover that making Baklava requires more patience than skill. The syrup for the Baklawa is made with a combination of sugar and honey and drizzled over the layered phyllo dough, filled with ground nuts. Not too much syrup, however; just enough to hold the Baklawa together. This result is baklawa that's not overly sweet and sticky, and is absolutely delicious.

So clear a couple of hours from your schedule, and get ready to learn how to make this popular Middle Eastern dessert. If you're looking for an easier baklava recipe to try, give my Sari Rolled Baklava or my Birds Nest Baklava a try!

What you need to make this recipe

Recipe Ingredient Notes

• Phyllo/Fillo/Filo Sheets — Sometimes Filo pastry comes in various thicknesses. Thickness #4 or #5 can be used for this recipe. Keep the phyllo dough covered with kitchen towels while assembling the baklava. This keeps the dough from drying out.
• Nuts — Baklawa can be prepared with a variety of nut mixtures. Walnuts and pistachios are the most popular. Feel free to use your favorite combination, but I prefer equal portions of walnuts, pistachios, and almonds.
• Rose Water — Rose Water or Orange Blossom Water are used in a lot of Middle Eastern recipes, so they'll come in handy to prepare other desserts on my blog.

How to Make Middle Eastern Baklawa

Note: Defrost fillo dough according to package instructions.

Prepare Syrup for Baklawa

STEP 1: Mix water, sugar, honey, lemon juice, and rose water in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves. (Optional Step: Add cardamom pods, whole cloves, and dehydrated orange slices to enhance the syrup flavor.)

STEP 2: Bring the syrup to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes. Set aside to cool while you assemble the Baklawa.

Baklawa Assembly

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F

STEP 3: While the syrup is boiling, grind the nut mixture in a food processor, then mix in sugar, cardamom, and cinnamon and stir to combine. Set the nut mixture aside until needed.

STEP 4: Next, clarify the butter by slowly melting and discarding the foamy and milky white substance from the butter. See this tutorial on how to clarify butter.

PRO TIP: Clarifying 1 cup of butter should leave you with approximately ¾ cup of clarified butter. You may not need all of it.

PRO TIP: Keep sheets of phyllo dough covered with the plastic sheet they were rolled in, followed by a damp dishcloth. This will keep the pasty sheets from drying out.

STEP 5: Brush the bottom of a 9" x 13" baking dish or pan with melted butter using a pastry brush.Place one phyllo pastry sheet carefully into the buttered dish. Gently brush the sheet with butter.

PRO TIP: If the sheets are too long for the pan, alternate folding the extra portion from the top and bottom of the pan.

STEP 6: Continue to butter and layer the sheets until you have used up approximately ¼ of the sheets.

PRO TIP: It's ok if the sheets are broken. You can use the butter to patch them together. Save the ones that are not damaged to go on top.

STEP 7: Once you've layered approximately ¼ of the sheets, distribute ⅓ of the nut mixture over them. Carefully cover with more buttered sheets.

Note: Here's an example of how to layer the Baklawa.

• ¼ fillo sheets
• ⅓ nut filling
• ¼ fillo sheets
• ⅓ nut filling
• ¼ fillo sheets
• ⅓ nut filling
• ¼ fillo sheets

STEP 8: Continue these steps until all the nuts and Fillo sheets are used up.

STEP 9: When you're done assembling the baklawa, use a sharp knife to cut it into squares. Or cut into rectangles, then cut each rectangle in half to form triangles. Some prefer to cut it into diamond shapes.

PRO TIP: If you have extra butter, you can drizzle it over the baklava tray. Mist the top layer of filo dough with a few sprays of water to keep the Fillo sheets from curling up as they bake.

STEP 10: Place the tray in the oven and bake for approximately 45 minutes, or up to an hour, until golden in color. You may need to rotate the pan ½ way through to cook evenly.

STEP 11: When the Baklawa is done baking, remove the pan from the oven and pour the cooled syrup slowly over the hot Baklawa. Make sure to distribute the syrup evenly to cover all the baklava pieces.The Baklava will sizzle as the syrup is absorbed by the fillo sheets.

Allow the Baklawa to rest for a few hours, uncovered, until set, before serving.

Recipe FAQs

Pro Tips

• Defrost phyllo dough in the fridge overnight, if frozen.
• You can also defrost frozen phyllo dough on the counter for an hour or so, prior to using it but the preferred method is defrosting it in the fridge.
• Some phyllo packages contain 2 rolls of phyllo dough, while others come with one big roll. The size of the phyllo dough varies as well. You might need to trim the dough to make it fit into the pan. With some brands, like Kontos, the sheets are twice the size of the pan. In that case, cut the large sheets into 2 9"x13" stacks.
• Keep phyllo dough covered with kitchen towels while assembling the baklava. This keeps the phyllo dough from drying out.
• Baklava can also be cut into diamonds, instead of squares. To do this, place the pan vertically in front of you. Slice lines diagonally in one direction, then again in the opposite direction.
• To keep the phyllo sheets from curling up, mist the top layer of phyllo with water before baking.
• Sometimes Fillo pastry comes in various thicknesses. Thickness #4 or #5 can be used for this recipe.
• To keep the baklawa from getting soggy, store it on the counter, either uncovered or covered with a thin kitchen towel.

📖 Recipe

This post was originally posted on June 27, 2018. The recipe was edited and republished on November 24, 2020. Recipe tips, faqs, and recipe pictures were updated.