Baklava Rolls
(Baklavadakia)

When I was pregnant with my daughter Isabelle, a waitress from the restaurant where I was buying my lunch use to offer me this small treat with the words:"for your baby".

I just love the sweetness and nuttiness of this dessert and trust my word; it is very difficult just to have one.

Ingredients

Ingredients for the Rolls
2 cups of coarsely chopped nuts (walnuts, macadamias, pistachios)
¼ cups of sugar
1/3 cup of breadcrumbs
Zest of one orange
2 tbsp of orange liqueur or orange flower water
1 teaspoon of mixed spices
Juice of ½ orange
1 package of filo pastry
1 cup of butter –melted

Ingredients for the syrup
1 cup of caster sugar
1 cup of water
1 cup of honey
1 orange zest
2 cinnamon sticks
A couple of cloves
1 tbsp of lemon juice

Directions

First, prepare the syrup by mixing the water, sugar and honey in a heavy based saucepan. Add the orange zest, cinnamon sticks and the cloves.

Stir the ingredients over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer the syrup until it has thickened. Then, remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and set aside to cool for at least an hour.

Prepare the filling. In a large bowl, combine the nuts, sugar, breadcrumbs, orange zest, liqueur, mixed spices and orange juice and mix well.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (fan forced).

Place the filo pastry on the counter and cover it with a slightly damp cloth. This will ensure that the pastry doesn’t dry out while you are working.

To assemble the baklava, take one sheet of the filo pastry and lay it out on your work surface. Use a pastry brush to give it a coating of melted butter. Be as gentle as possible to avoid tearing the pastry.

Then take a second sheet and lay it on top of the first. Again brush this sheet with melted butter. Repeat this process with two more sheets of pastry so you have four sheets in total in the stack.

Next, place a few large spoonfuls of the nut mixture along the bottom of the top sheet of filo and arrange it into a neat log shape that is about 2.5cm wide and about 1cm thick. It should stretch right the way across the pastry and be positioned about 5cm from its end.

Brush the bottom edge of the sheet with butter and then roll the filo over the filling. You should try to make the roll as tight as possible.

Brush the top of the section you have just rolled with melted butter and then continue rolling up the filo as tightly as possible but stop a couple of centimetres before the end.

At this point, brush the edge with butter before finishing the roll and lightly pressing the edge down to secure it.

Once you have finished the roll, trim off the edges and cut the roll into 2.5 - 3 cm pieces (cut straight down or slightly angled). Brush each piece all over with butter and place them on a baking sheet.

Repeat the same procedure until you have used all the filo pastry or run out of filling.

Then bake the rolls for 25 minutes or until slightly golden.

Once cooked, transfer the baklava rolls to a tray and brush the cool syrup over them while they are still warm. This will ensure that the pastry stays crispy. Allow the baklava rolls to sit for 20 minutes, and then brush the underside of the rolls.

Allow the rolls to completely cool before serving.

Recipe By Tatiana, Flavoursome Delights
Preperation time: 45 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time including cooling: 2 hours 10 min
Yield: 24 - 36 Rolls