Baklava "Eastern Tale"
A homey blogger's take on baklava: instead of a syrup-soaked pastry, the delicate filo sheets hold a rich, fluffy walnut-and-cinnamon meringue cream, finished with honey and pistachios or walnuts. Inspired by a day gathering walnuts at grandma's village.
Ingredients
| 1 пакет (450 г) | pack of banitsa/filo sheets (I used special baklava sheets, smaller weight — 350 g) |
| 180 г | cow's butter |
| 6 бр. | egg whites |
| 400 г | sugar |
| 2 ч.ч. | raw, cleaned walnuts (cup = 200 ml) |
| 2 ч.л. | cinnamon |
| 2 бр. | egg yolks (extra) |
| 2 с.л. | honey (extra) |
| — | walnuts / pistachios, for decoration |
Instructions
The story: These days grandma called us to the village to gather the walnuts so they wouldn't "go bad". Митко, grandma, mum and I, dressed in the latest village fashion (old work clothes taken to the village — often an old pink coat, a knitted blouse, camo trousers, a peaked cap and rubber gloves), went to collect the walnuts. It was great fun — grandma and Митко stayed aside working out, almost with engineering thought, how to hit the walnuts on the high branches, while mum and I were bombarded by the falling nuts. Grandma even slipped down the slope a couple of times so as not to lose a single walnut :) After all that work we didn't even fill a bucket, but we laughed a lot. Over lunch I asked grandma about a favourite forgotten recipe from her childhood; she remembers most fondly a pumpkin pie her mother used to make in a "podnitsa" covered with a "vrashnik". While I find a way to recreate that, I decided to delight my sweet granny with a dessert using those fun walnuts — baklava "Eastern Tale". I don't know where the name comes from, but it must be from some tale, because there is nothing tastier. This dessert tempts you with the familiar taste of the delicate baklava sheets, but instead of being syrup-soaked, here we have a filling of a rich, walnut-packed, fluffy egg-white cream.
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Separate the whites from the yolks. (In this treat we'll use only two yolks, but we'll save the rest for a very tasty caramel cream to share soon.)
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Beat the whites with the sugar to stiff peaks ("to snow").
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The walnuts I gave as measures are cleaned but whole. Put them in the blender and grind them.
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To the ground walnuts add the cinnamon and mix well.
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Pour everything into the whites. Beat again so everything is integrated into the cream.
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Assemble the baklava as follows. Melt the butter. Place one sheet in the pan, brush with butter. Add another sheet, butter, another sheet, butter — so three sheets with butter between them so far. Add one portion of the cream. (Tip: pre-divide the number of sheets, mentally splitting the cream into 3 or 4 portions, no more.)
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Continue again with sheet, butter, sheet, butter, sheet, butter and cream again. So on until the end, but the last sheet is not brushed with butter.
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Fold the edges of the sheets inward, and brush the last sheet with the lightly beaten yolks.
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With a sharp knife, and a lot of care, start cutting the baklava into shapes of your choice.
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Bake the baklava in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes.
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Then reduce the oven to 150 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes — the baklava should have acquired a beautiful amber colour. To keep it from burning, lay a sheet of aluminium foil over it while it finishes baking.
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"Glaze" the finished baklava with honey and decorate with pistachios or walnuts.
So tender, soft and full of walnut cream that it just begs for a coffee!