Baklava is one of our favorite desserts, and we usually always make it during the holidays. There are numerous ways to make it, and we never do it the same. Sometimes we use only walnuts. Or you can use a combination of walnuts and pistachios, or if you prefer, walnuts and hazelnuts. You can make it with lemons, oranges, or both. You can add dried fruits like raisin, dates, and/or figs. You can also uses different spices. I’ve had it with cardamom before and that was wonderful.
However you decide to make it, you’re going to enjoy every single bite! Trust me, I’ve never met a baklava I didn’t like! 
Just keep in mind that this pastry is incredibly sweet and rich in taste. It doesn’t take much to satisfy even the sweetest of sweet tooths. This recipe will make a lot of baklava, so it’s great to serve at a party or to share with friends, family, and co-workers.
Baklava
Ingredients for the filling:
- 5 cups chopped walnuts
- 2 cups chopped almonds
- 1 cup butter
- 1/4 cup cinnamon
- 3/4 cups honey
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 5 tbsp. lemon juice
Ingredients for the syrup:
- 4 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 cups water
- 2 tsp. dried orange peel
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- Optional: 1 lemon, sliced
Ingredients for the filo dough crust:
- 1 pkg. filo dough
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 tbsp. oil
Step One:
- Take the filo dough out of the freezer a couple of hours before you’re ready to make your baklava and let it thaw out.
- Chop all the nuts.
- Put 1 cup butter in a large pot.
- When the butter is about halfway melted, add the rest of the filling ingredients, mixing and stirring on low heat.
- Remove from the heat when the butter is melted and everything is mixed together; set aside.
Step Two:
- Oil a large baking pan, and then unroll the filo dough. (We used a 12 inch by 17 inch pan.)
- Place half of the filo dough on the bottom of the pan. If the filo is too large to fit in the pan you will need to cut it.
- Melt 1/2 cup butter on low heat.
- Generously brush butter on the filo dough.
Step Three:
- Take all the filling that you made and spread it evenly over the filo dough.
- Take the other half of the filo dough and place it on top of the walnut filling.
- Generously brush the top of the filo dough with butter.
- Cut the baklava into whatever size pieces you want. This is a very sweet dessert so small pieces are fine, but if you prefer larger, then that’s fine too. Keep in mind if you forget to cut the baklava before baking as I did once before, it’ll be very difficult to cut it after it’s done.
- Cover the filo dough with aluminum foil and bake on 325 degrees for about 30 minutes or so.
- Then uncover the filo dough and continue baking about 10 minutes so the filo dough can brown.
- When the baklava is done, remove it from the oven and let it cool on your counter top.
Step Four:
- While the baklava is baking, you can make your syrup. It takes about 10-15 minutes to make so I’d suggest starting this step after the baklava has been in the oven about 25 minutes. You can also make the syrup the night before and just warm it up right before the baklava is almost done. We had some syrup left over from the Greek Walnut Cake I made last week, so we used that and then added more sugar and honey to it.
- Combine all the syrup ingredients in a pot and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly.
- You want the sugar mixture to thicken up until it reaches the consistency of a thin syrup. We made our syrup a little thicker this time, but it still worked fine.
- Pour the hot syrup over the baklava when it comes out of the oven. If you put lemon slices in your syrup, remove them and set them aside before pouring the syrup. The amount of syrup you use is up to you. When you see the baklava doesn’t soak up the syrup anymore then you don’t need to put anymore. If you have any syrup left over, pour it into a glass jar and refrigerate. You can use it another time.
- Optional: If you put lemon slices in your syrup, you can garnish the top of your baklava with the syrup-soaked lemon slices. The lemon juice will soak into the baklava, giving it an even better flavor. We usually do this but we forgot to buy a lemon this time.
