Baklava

Baklava is a layered pastry of filo, chopped nuts and syrup, and it is claimed as a national sweet across a wide stretch of the Balkans, the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean – Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey among them. Whose it is remains disputed. This version layers walnuts and almonds together and finishes with a lemon, honey and orange flower syrup.

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Last updated 9 September 2026

Recipe

Baklava

Prep

30 mins

Cook

1 hr

Ingredients

• 1½ tsp. lemon skin
• 560 g sugar + 2 tbsp.
• 50 ml lemon juice
• 90 g honey
• 2 tablespoons orange flower water
• 300 g walnuts
• 300 g almonds
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 200 g butter
• 375 g filo

Method

1. Bring 375 ml of water, lemon peel and the 560 g of sugar and boil while stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Boil for 5 minutes, then simmer for another 5 minutes.
3. Add lemon juice, honey and orange blossom and cook for a couple of minutes.
4. Put pot with contents in the fridge for cooling.
5. Turn on the oven at 170 ° C with conventional heat.
6. Melt the butter.
7. Chop nuts and almonds, and mix them with the 2 tablespoons sugar as well as cinnamon.
8. Butter a frying pan (about 30 x 27 cm) with melted butter.
9. Divide the file into 12 equal pieces and roll them into plates that match the pan.
10. Cover the bottom of the pan with a layer of filo
11. Grease the filo with melted butter.
12. Put another layer of filo, which is lubricated with melted butter.
13. Continue until there are 6 layers of filo, which are lubricated with melted butter.
14. Get the chopped nuts and almonds.
15. Prepare with filo and butter, filo and butter until there is no more filo.
16. Push the last layer of file code down and cut a space pattern into it.
17. Pour, if necessary, excess butter over.
18. Bake baklava for 30 minutes, then screw down to 150 ° C and bag for additional 30 minutes.
19. Remove the cake from the oven and cut it out after the space pattern.
20. Pour the syrup (the one you put in the fridge) over the cake.

Step by step, in pictures

Six drawings covering the syrup, the filling and the layering.

1. Boil the water, lemon peel and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
2. Add the lemon juice, honey and orange flower water, then chill the syrup.
3. Chop the nuts and mix them with the sugar and cinnamon.
4. Butter the pan and lay down filo, brushing butter between the layers.
5. Spread the nut mixture over the filo.
6. Score the diamond pattern before it goes in the oven.

What baklava is made of

Baklava is filo pastry layered with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. That is the whole of it – the variation between versions is which nuts go in, what goes into the syrup, and how many layers of pastry get stacked before and after the filling.

This version uses walnuts and almonds together rather than picking one, seasons them with cinnamon, and pours over a syrup built from lemon, honey and orange flower water. If you want another butter-and-nut pastry from the same part of the world, there is qurabiya; for something walnut-heavy and closer to home, walnut brownies.

Is baklava Greek or Turkish?

There is no settled answer, and anyone giving you a confident one is picking a side. Several countries across the Balkans, the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East treat baklava as a national sweet and claim it as their own. Those claims are what the source for this recipe records, and it is not a dispute a recipe page can settle.

What is not disputed is the construction: filo, nuts, butter, syrup. That is what the recipe above makes.

Questions