Cyptiot Almond Baklava

INGREDIENTS

Syrup

500g sugar

450ml water

1 cinnamon quill

12 whole cloves

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 rind from a lemon or orange

60g honey

1 teaspoon orange blossom water

Baklava

900g filo pastry (2 packs of the Greek filo sheets or approximately 22 filo sheets)

300g almonds 

45g sugar

1 pinch of salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

250 ghee/clarified butter for the bottom layer

200g ghee/clarified butter for the top layer

METHOD

Syrup

Make the syrup first by adding all the ingredients, apart from the orange blossom water, into a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer while stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring the heat down to low and simmer for 5-6 minutes, removing any foam from the syrup.

Add the orange blossom water, stir and simmer for just a couple of minutes more, until you see 2-3 drops of syrup fall off your spoon.

Baklava

You’ll need a 32cmx32cm baking tray, preferably aluminium. Preheat your oven to 160C fan force and start by cutting both packs of filo sheets the same size as your baking tray by placing the tray on top of the filo and cutting around it with a sharp knife. Keep any large sheets to layer with and finely blitz the smaller offcuts from both packs to use later. Make sure you keep one pack of filo for the bottom layers and the second for the top layers. 

Brush your baking pan with some ghee and lay over 2 sheets of filo. Brush with ghee and repeat until you have used one pack of filo (or about 11 sheets) plus the large off-cuts from the first pack earlier. 

Finely chop or blitz the nuts in a food processor until they are a little bit bigger than grains of sugar or a chunky crumb. Add them to a bowl with the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt, mix and scatter on top of the layers of filo. Then, add the blitzed of-cuts of filo on top. Sprinkle some ghee on top until generously coated.

Layer the entire second pack of filo along with the larger offcuts and cut them into squares or diamonds. To cut into diamonds, cut into long strips, about 1 inch apart, then on the diagonal.

Melt 200g ghee and slowly pour on top of the cut baklava. Tease the ghee into the layers by moving the tray in circles gently. 

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15, until beautifully golden brown and crisp.

As soon as your baklava comes out of the oven, hit it with the cold syrup and leave it to soak for at least 6 hours or overnight.