Years ago, a friend mentioned to me that her favorite tradition during the holiday season was making homemade baklava and we have started the same tradition since then. Although there are a few steps to assembling the baklava, none of them are difficult! It only takes trying it once to realize just how easy it is to make truly fantastic baklava at home! You kind of have to love nuts to love baklava. If you do, you might also love these Pistachio Macarons, Quick and Easy Candied Walnuts, and Burnt Almond Cupcakes. I’m a HUGE baklava fan. I mean, nuts and honey and a flaky pastry? You can’t beat it. Since the first time I tried this Greek baklava, it has been one of my favorite treats that I tend to have cravings for. This Greek baklava recipe is perfect for a make-ahead dessert. It stays good after being freshly baked for up to 7 days, or up to 4 months in the freezer! Make up a double batch and enjoy baklava easily for any special occasion! For more delicious desserts using pastry, check out my Caramel Apple Pie Crescent Rolls, these Cuban Guava Cream Cheese Pastries, Classic Cream Puffs, or these Easy Blackberry Turnovers!
Why We Love This Recipe
Customize this Greek baklava recipe with nuts and spices to suit your taste. Made with ingredients you can easily find at the grocery store. This detailed guide will show you how easy it is to make baklava! The instructions might look intimidating, but really it’s just making a simple and quick syrup, then layering a package of thawed phyllo dough with butter and chopped nuts, then baking it!
What You’ll Need
Scroll down to the recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Pastry – Phyllo dough thawed according to package instructions. Butter – Salted butter will keep the pastry moist between each layer. Nuts – We’re using walnuts for this Greek baklava. Cinnamon – Ground cinnamon adds a warm flavor to this dessert. Granulated white sugar & honey – To make the sweet syrup. Use good quality honey for the best results. Lemon juice – Freshly squeezed lemon juice is best, but use bottled if you have it on hand instead.
Greek Baklava Recipe
My only experience with baklava as a child was Genie’s mention of it in the Disney movie “Aladdin.” There are many variations of baklava, depending on where it is from in the Mediterranean or the Middle East. Some baklava is sweeter; some more heavily spiced with cloves and cardamom in addition to the cinnamon or perfumed with orange blossom or rose water. And the nut-filling used in baklava can be different from region to region, country to country. The way baklava is assembled or even sliced gives clues to its origins. Diamond shapes, triangles, rectangles, and squares are the most common kinds, although I have also seen circles, cups, and “cigars,” which are basically just little rolled-up tubes of baklava. I did quite a bit of research when I was trying to decide what kind of baklava to make! I knew that I wanted to go with a Greek approach since my favorite baklava always has a strong honey flavor to it, but I also really love pistachio baklava. The walnut and cinnamon filling with honey syrup and diamond-shaped baklava slices of this baklava all indicate a Greek origin. The flavor was absolutely incredible, with just the right balance of sweetness, warmth, and butteriness from all the honey, cinnamon, butter, and walnuts, with that little bit of lemon juice to offset the other flavors. This really is a very easy classic Greek baklava recipe. Having now made it dozens of times, I can’t believe it took me so long to try it!
How to Make Greek Baklava
Tips for Success
Phyllo pastry. Most frozen phyllo dough is sold in 16-ounce packages but some include only 1 large roll of phyllo dough with 18-20 sheets while others contain 2 smaller rolls totaling 40 sheets. It’s not a big deal, though. If you buy the larger sheets, just cut them in half, and you are good to go. Keep phyllo from drying out. Don’t worry if some of the dough cracks and tears. I also found that despite keeping a damp towel over my phyllo dough, some of it still seemed to want to crack and tear. It’s super thin stuff, and I ended up sort of piecing together a few layers of my baklava with broken and torn scraps of dough, hoping it would turn out okay. And it totally did! Timing. Make the syrup BEFORE baking the baklava so that it has plenty of time to cool completely prior to the baked baklava coming out of the oven. It’s important to pour cooled syrup over hot baklava; otherwise, it won’t be absorbed properly, and you will end up with soggy baklava.
Substitutions and Variations
Change up the spices to include some whole cloves, cardamom, or cinnamon. Add some aromatics with orange blossom or rose water. Change the kind of nuts used in the nut layers. The way baklava is assembled or even sliced also gives clues to its origins, with diamond shapes, triangles, rectangles, and squares being the most common shapes, although I have also seen circles, cups, and “cigars,” which are little rolled-up tubes of baklava.
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This post was originally published in December, 2017. The photos and content were updated in December, 2022. I have seen 16 oz. packages of phyllo pastry dough that come with either 18 large sheets in one roll or 40 smaller sheets in 2 rolls. Either pack will work, so long as you have 16 oz. of phyllo pastry. I just cut the 18 large sheets in half down the middle to fit, giving 36 sheets. The 40 smaller sheets might still need to be trimmed slightly around the edges to fit the pan.
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