
Instead of soaking the baklava in regular sugar syrup, pour natural silan over the layers of filo dough and nuts. The silan gets soaked up into the pastry, giving the baklava a delicious and unique flavor. I’ve put dates in between the nuts (to maximize the silan theme), but these are optional.
The recipe is for a 27×33 cm Pyrex pan.
Ingredients:
1 package of filo dough, defrosted in the refrigerator overnight
100 g butter, melted + 1/4 cup oil
Filling Ingredients:
300 g (3 cups) walnuts or almonds, coarsely ground
50 g (1/4 cup) sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dates, pitted and chopped (optional)
Syrup Ingredients:
340 g (1 cup) Kinneret Farm silan
60 ml (1/4 cup) water
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Preparation:
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Mix all of the filling ingredients except the dates.
- Cut the sheets of filo dough in half along the width to get sheets the size of the pan. You should now have 24 pieces. Divide them into 3 equal groups.
- Lay down the first layer of filo dough and lightly brush it with melted butter (not every sheet needs to be brushed thoroughly). Spread half of the filling and then half of the chopped dates on top. Cover it with the second layer of filo dough brushed with butter. Spread the rest of the filling and the dates over it and cover with most of the remaining filo dough, leaving one sheet aside.
- When the dough is still soft, use a sharp knife to cut 3-4 cm diamonds into the dough. You will be able to break these apart after baking. Lay the last sheet of dough over the top.
- Bake for about 40 minutes until golden brown, and throw away the top sheet of dough.
- To make the syrup, bring the silan and water to a boil and cook for about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the lemon and pour over the baklava as soon as it is removed from the oven.
- Cool and serve at room temperature.