Swedish Banitsa
A sweet festive dessert made from crumbled filo pastry layered with butter and a vanilla-walnut-lemon filling, baked and soaked in hot sugar syrup.
⏱️ Prep: 45 min
Ingredients
| 1 pack | fine banitsa filo sheets | |
| 125 g | butter | |
| 3 | eggs | |
| 4 tbsp | 60 ml | sugar |
| 4 tbsp | 60 ml | flour |
| 2 packs | vanilla | |
| 4 tbsp | 60 ml | lemon zest |
| 1/2 pack | baking powder | |
| 1 cup | 240 ml | walnuts |
| 1 cup | 240 ml | sugar (for the syrup) |
| 2 cups | 480 ml | water (for the syrup) |
Instructions
Preparation time: 45 minutes.
- Spread out the fine banitsa filo sheets (1 pack) and leave them to dry overnight. Once they have dried out and become crisp, crumble them into evenly small pieces.
- Into a buttered pan dusted with flour, pour in half of the crumbled filo sheets. Distribute pieces of butter (125 g) over them.
- Over the butter pour the filling, prepared from the beaten eggs (3), sugar (4 tbsp), flour (4 tbsp), vanilla (2 packs), grated lemon zest (4 tbsp), baking powder (1/2 pack) and ground walnuts (1 cup).
- Sprinkle the mixture with the remaining crumbled fine filo and place in the oven. Bake for about an hour at 180 degrees, covering with foil if needed so that the fine filo on the surface of the Swedish banitsa does not burn.
- Once the banitsa is baked, remove it from the oven and leave to cool completely. Cut into square pieces and pour over the hot sugar syrup, prepared from sugar (1 cup) and water (2 cups), which have been left in a small pot to boil and thicken into a hot syrup.
- The Swedish banitsa is soaked with the syrup and served as a festive dessert.