How to Make Baklava

My family’s secret baklava recipe combines layers of honey-soaked crisp phyllo pastry and a cinnamon-scented nut mixture with pistachios, walnuts, and hazelnut. Baklava is the perfect make-ahead dessert because it’s even better the next day!

New to making baklava from scratch? This easy step-by-step tutorial and expert tips will help you make the BEST honey baklava every single time! Be sure to also watch the video below. 

When you grow up eating baklava at every gathering, you become a bit of a baklava snob–at least I did.

To me, nothing rivals homemade baklava. The texture of crisp, flaky phyllo pastry. The crunchy filling. And the warm honey syrup. It is all I want in a dessert.

Making honey baklava at home, be it in this traditional recipe or in my Baklava Sundae, may seem like a big undertaking. Trust me, it’s easier than you think. This fool-proof recipe will have you making Greek baklava like a pro!

And it’s the perfect make-ahead dessert, so you never have to rush the process! 

What is Baklava? 

Baklava is a sweet dessert made of layers of flaky phyllo pastry filled with crushed nuts and sweetened with honey syrup.

What is traditional baklava made of? 

Traditional Turkish baklava, also known as fistikli baklava or pistachio baklava is typically made of phyllo dough, finely crushed pistachios, butter, and a simple syrup made of sugar, water, and lemon juice.

You’ll find many variations of this beautiful dessert from Middle Eastern baklava, where the  simple syrup is scented with rosewater, to Greek baklava with walnuts and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon within.

This recipe leans toward Greek baklava, although with my own very nutty Egyptian twist (it’s all in the nut mixture).

Can you use other nuts?

Pistachios or walnuts are the most commonly used nuts. But you don’t have to use just one or the other. I love to use a combination of nuts and plenty of them! My favorite thing about this version of  Greek baklava is that it uses a mixture of three different nuts–pistachios, walnuts, and hazelnuts– along with cinnamon, pinch of ground cloves, and a sprinkle of sugar.

The nuts are chopped, but to get the perfect bite, don’t grind them too finely. This baklava recipe is a bit on the nutty side and no one is ever mad about it! But you can totally make this recipe your own and change the nut mixture to your liking.

Let’s take a look at what all goes in baklava recipe from scratch…

Baklava Ingredients

When making this baklava recipe, it helps to think of the ingredients list in three different components:

1. Phyllo pastry- find frozen phyllo dough in the freezer section next to things like pie crust.
2. Nut mixture- pistachios, walnuts, hazelnut, sugar, ground cinnamon, pinch of ground cloves. You can change the nut mixture according to what you have. For example, you can use just walnuts or pistachios, but be sure to have enough of whichever nut you use. And if you’re not a fan of cinnamon, you can omit that.
3. Honey syrup- water, sugar, honey, and lemon juice. To infuse the syrup with more flavor, I add two more completely optional items, orange extract and whole cloves.

How to Make Baklava: Step-by-Step

Important Tips

There are a couple of things that intimidate people when it comes to making baklava. One for sure is how to work with paper-thin phyllo dough. I shared a couple tips on that with my spanakopita recipe, but let’s go over those again in addition to a couple more baklava-specific tips that will ensure you make the BEST baklava ever:

1. Thaw your phyllo dough properly. Too much moisture will make the phyllo sticky and hard to manage.  Do not remove the phyllo (fillo) from the package, place it in the fridge 12-14 hours until ready to use.
2. Place the phyllo pastry sheets between two clean towels while you work.  Unless you are able to work quickly, before you begin to assemble the baklava, place the thawed phyllo sheets in between two clean kitchen towels. This helps the phyllo sheets remain lenient so they won’t tear or break too much.
3. Prepare your honey syrup ahead. It’s important that the honey syrup is cool when it hits the freshly-baked hot baklava. This way, the hot baklava layers will absorb as much of the syrup as possible and you’ll have perfectly honeyed baklava. You have enough time to make the syrup while the baklava is baking, but be sure you take it off heat and set it in a cool place.
4. Chop the nuts well, but don’t grind them too finely into a paste or powder. Obviously you don’t want the nuts nestled in the baklava to be too big or make it hard to bite on the beautiful pastry. But be sure not to grind the nuts too finely that you end up with dust for your filling. You want to still be able to taste the nuts and enjoy their texture.
5. Cut the assembled baklava into pieces before baking. So important, before you bake it, use a sharp knife to cut the pastry into pieces (I cut my baklava into larger diamond shaped pieces.  You can usually get about 24 up to 36 pieces depending on their size). Why cut it before you bake it? Because once phyllo pastry is baked, it’s super crunchy and if you try to cut through it then, it’ll break into a mess.
6. Make your baklava one night in advance!  Hooray for the perfect make-ahead dessert! Baklava is even better the next day when it’s had a chance to completely soak in the honey syrup. You can store it covered at room temperature for one night. Be sure it is completely cooled before you cover it (so important)

How to keep baklava from getting soggy?

Remember my one tip about hot baklava and cool syrup? This is also the key to keep your honey baklava from getting soggy. The hot flaky phyllo will properly absorb the cooled syrup while remaining crispy.

If the syrup was also hot, or if the syrup and baklava were both cool, the syrup will kind of collect in a bit of a pool and will not be absorbed properly. This will cause the beautiful pastry you worked so hard on to get soggy.

How to store baklava?

The good news is baklava is one of the few desserts you can make a few days ahead. It will keep well for up to 2 weeks stored in an air-tight glass container at room temperature or in the fridge.

Personally, I move any leftover baklava to the fridge after a few days, but keeping it at room temperature does preserve it’s crispy texture better. 

You’ll know when your baklava is nearing the end of its life when it starts to dry out.

You can freeze already baked baklava for up to 4 months, if you like. It’s good to store it in small batches so you don’t have to thaw out the entire pan when you need a treat. Thaw in the fridge overnight or at room temperature for a few hours.

Watch the video to make it:

Craving more phyllo recipes? Try apple strudel, Spanakopita, or this savory meat pie!

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This post first appeared on The Mediterranean Dish in 2014 and has been recently updated with new media and information for readers’ benefit. Enjoy!