Pistachio Baklava
Crisp layers of phyllo pastry filled with finely chopped pistachios and soaked in a sweet lemon syrup for a classic Mediterranean treat.
Ingredients
Syrup
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 2/3 cups water
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
Baklava
- 1 pound phyllo dough thawed overnight in the refrigerator
- 1 1/2 cups clarified butter melted
- 3 cups shelled pistachios finely chopped
- 1/3 cup shelled pistachios finely chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
- Stir in the lemon juice.
- Cool the syrup, then refrigerate it until cold.
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Brush a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with clarified butter.
- Trim the phyllo sheets to fit the dish.
- Keep the stack covered with a damp kitchen towel while you work so the sheets dont dry out.
- Place one sheet of phyllo in the dish and brush it lightly with clarified butter.
- Repeat until you have a stack of 10 buttered sheets.
- Sprinkle half of the 3 cups of chopped pistachios evenly over the phyllo.
- Add another stack of 10 phyllo sheets, brushing each sheet with clarified butter as you layer it.
- Bake for 60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
- After 40 minutes, loosely cover the dish with foil to keep the top from browning too quickly.
- Remove the baklava from the oven and immediately pour the cold syrup evenly over the hot pastry.
- Sprinkle the remaining chopped pistachios over the top.
- Let the baklava cool completely before serving.