Perfect dessert for your next party, a quick and easy fix for your baklava crave. Crunchy, buttery layers of phyllo dough stuffed with spiced nuts and drizzled with simple syrup. A fun party spin on a Mediterranean favorite recipe.
I’ve made Baklava so many times in my life that I’ve lost count of. I’ve also made many baklava inspired recipes like the baked apples and granola.
Still baklava rolls or baklava cigars are the most wanted and enjoyed recipe by my family.
Baklava or Baklawa as we pronounce it in Arabic, is one of the easiest Middle eastern desserts. It comes in a variety of shapes and fillings. Rolls is one of the most common form and usually filled with nuts and drizzled with syrup or honey.
So let’s start rolling
I’ve chosen to fill my baklava with pistachios, it is our favorite. Another favorite of mine is walnuts, I highly recommend roasting the nuts before grounding them specially walnuts, it brings up the flavor and makes a huge difference. So we’ll grind about a cup of our favorite nuts.
Here comes the flavoring, cinnamon goes very well with walnuts. For pistachios I’ve decided to flavor it with orange blossom water, some people like to add rose water.
In my family we prefer orange blossom than rose water, and add 3 Tablespoons of simple syrup/honey or corn syrup whatever is easier for you. Mix those with the ground nuts until you get sort of a coarse, sticky paste.
Brush 2 sheets of phyllo with melted butter and spoon about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the nut mixture in a line.
Roll the sheets tightly and place in a baking pan. Repeat with the remaining sheets until you are done. Bake in a 325F oven until top is lightly golden. Will take 35-40 minutes.
Remove from oven and pour simple syrup over. Let it cool completely before serving.
Remove rolls from pan and cut into two or three equal parts depending on your favorite serving size. I’ve cut mine into 3 parts. My phyllo package made me 9 rolls, one is already missing from the photos up, guess where did it go? 🙂
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Baklava rolls
Ingredients
- 1 cup roasted unsalted pistachios meat.
- 1 -2 teaspoons orange blossom water*.
- 3 Tablespoons simple syrup.**
- 1/2 1lb package of phyllo dough, about 18 sheets.
- 1/2 cup melted butter.
For the Simple syrup:
- 1 cup sugar.
- 1/2 cup water.
- 1/2 teaspoon lime juice.
- 1/4 cup honey.
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.***
Instructions
Make the syrup:
- In a saucepan over medium heat, combine syrup ingredeints until it boils, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Set aside to cool completely.
Make the filling:
- In your food processor, pulse the pistachios until finely ground. Add simple syrup and the orange blossom water to the pistachios and mix well until you get a sticky coarse paste.
Assemble the rolls:
- Preheat oven to 320F
- On a clean working surface, take two phyllo sheets out, brush lightly by melted butter. Spoon about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the filling and form a log on the short side of the sheet and roll all the way through.
- Brush the finished roll with more butter and place in a baking sheet.
- Bake in oven until top is golden brown, about 40 minutes depending on your oven.
- Pour 1/2 to 1 cup of simple syrup over and let it cool completely, preferable overnight if you can.
- Take phyllo cigars out, cut into 2 or 4 equal parts.
- Serve and enjoy!.
Do we need to apply butter to each layer of the sheets? Someone told me that one layer is better cause it’s more crispier? It’s my first time
Applying butter to the phyllo makes them more crispy I usually apply it every couple of layers or so.