Best Cinnamon Walnut Baklava Recipes

CINNAMON-WALNUT BAKLAVA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with butter; set aside. In a medium saucepan, combine 3 cups sugar, lemon juice, and 1 1/2 cups water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer until sugar dissolves and mixture is syrupy, about 10 minutes. Set syrup aside.
• In a food processor, pulse walnuts with cinnamon and remaining 1/2 cup sugar until finely ground. Set walnut filling aside.
• Place stack of thawed phyllo sheets on a work surface. Using a sharp knife, trim stack into a 13-by-9-inch rectangle; discard trimmings. Place 1 sheet of trimmed phyllo in prepared baking dish (keep remaining sheets covered with a damp cloth or paper towel). Brush gently with butter; repeat with two more sheets of phyllo, laying each on top of the other. (You now have a 3-sheet stack of buttered phyllo.)
• Sprinkle phyllo stack in dish with 1/3 cup walnut filling. Repeat with 7 more buttered phyllo stacks, sprinkling each with walnut filling. Top with one more stack; brush generously with butter.
• Using a sharp knife, cut unbaked baklava into 24 squares. Bake until puffed and golden, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; pour syrup over baklava. Let stand at room temperature until syrup is absorbed, at least 3 hours.

WALNUT, CINNAMON AND HALLOUMI BAKLAVA

Steps:

• Heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit/240 degrees Celsius. Mix together all the ingredients for the filling and set aside.
• Place one sheet of pastry in an 8-by-8-inch/20-by-20-centimeter baking pan, preferably one with low edges, arranging the pastry so the sides of the sheet rise up the sides of the pan. Brush with a little butter and continue in the same way with 7 more sheets of pastry, brushing each with butter, until you have layered 8 sheets of pastry.
• Scatter the grated halloumi on top of the pastry and then sprinkle all of the walnut mixture over evenly. Place another layer of pastry on top, pressing down securely. Brush with more butter and continue with the remaining 7 layers of pastry in the same way. Brush the final layer with butter and use your fingers to gently tuck the pastry edges underneath the baklava so you get a neat edge (a bit like making a bed).
• Using a small sharp knife, cut the baklava into 9 or 16 pieces, allowing the knife almost to reach the bottom, but not quite. Transfer to oven and bake for 18 minutes, turning the pan around halfway through baking until baklava is dark golden-brown and crisp on top.
• While the baklava is baking, make the rose water syrup: Heat sugar and 1/3 cup/90 milliliters water in a small saucepan on a medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes, swirling every once in a while until the sugar has dissolved and started to boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add lemon juice and rose water and let simmer gently for 6 to 7 minutes, until you have about 3/4 cup/180 milliliters of slightly thickened syrup left. Remove from the heat and set aside.
• As soon as the baklava has been removed from the oven, pour two-thirds of the syrup over it and sprinkle with rose petals, crushing them slightly as you go. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly, and then serve each slice warm, with an extra 1 or 2 teaspoons of syrup drizzled on top.