Publications
- 1 - bottle green fig preserve (you need 10–12 figs and about 200ml syrup)
- 1 - packet (500g) phyllo pastry, thawed
- 250g - butter, melted
- - FILLING
- 8–12 - green figs, roughly chopped
- 750ml - mixed nuts, roughly chopped
- 60ml - sugar
- - zest of 1 lemon
1. Drain the green figs and place 200ml syrup in the refrigerator to chill. (If you have too little, boil equal quantities of water and sugar for 5 minutes once the sugar has dissolved and top up the green fig syrup with this.)
2. Mix the chopped green figs, nuts, sugar and zest in a food processor and blend into a coarse paste. Set aside.
3. Decide whether you want to make a round or square baklava. We made a round one in a 23cm cake pan. Brush it with butter, ready to start stacking. Divide the phyllo sheets into four batches. Take the first batch (keep the rest under a damp tea towel to prevent them from drying out while you work), brush with butter one by one and stack on top of each other. Trim the stack into the shape of your pan. Try to use as much of the extra pastry in the stack as possible to make it thicker.
4. Place the stack in the prepared pan and spoon a third of the nut-and-green-fig filling in an even layer on top; press down firmly. Brush the next stack of pastry with butter and place on top. Cover with another third of the filling, another stack of pastry, the final third of the filling and lastly with the final stack of phyllo.
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cut the baklava into slices but only halfway through the layers (it is only cut right through when it comes out of the oven, but it’s essential that you cut it halfway to make it easier to divide later). Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C and then increase the oven temperature to 200°C for about 10 more minutes or until it has turned a deep golden colour.
6. Remove the baklava from the oven and cut through to the bottom. Keep it in the pan and pour the cold syrup over immediately so it can be properly absorbed. Let the baklava cool and serve chilled with sweet wine and a dollop of thick Greek yoghurt or frozen yoghurt.
Making frozen yoghurt is as easy as making double-cream yoghurt with your sweetener of choice in an ice cream machine. If you don’t have a machine, try this:
Mix 1L double-cream Greek yoghurt with honey to taste and a dash of vanilla essence. Spoon the mixture into an ice tray and freeze until just set. Turn out the yoghurt ice cubes into your juicer jug (make sure it can chop ice) and pulse until smooth and creamy. Add a little milk if it’s not getting smooth enough; frozen yoghurt must have the same consistency as soft-serve ice cream. Spoon back into a flat container and freeze for several hours until firm. Using an ice cream scoop, make balls and serve with baklava.
