My favourite Greek desert from..Turkey!

BACLAVA is a turkish word for a desert but..all greeks know what it is and they call it the same.!

It is one of my favourite deserts and I usually make it during the hot summer months!

Loads of melted butter
500 gr of phylo pastry
150 gr chopped walnuts
150 gr chopped almonds
1 tbs ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves

For the syrup:

2 cups of caster sugar
1 cup honey
1 cup of water

Mix the walnuts, almonds,cinnamon and cloves in a bowl.
Use a deep stoneware baking tray. Brush up butter all over the inside of the tray.lay two phyllo sheets and brush them with butter. Sprinkle the nut mixture and lay another sheet of phyllo, buTter it and sprinkle some of the nut mixture again. Do the same till you have two phyllo sheets left. Put the last two phyllo sheets and brush them with lots of butter. Use a sharp knife and cut the top into diamonds, but don't cut the shapes down to the bottom of the tray. In a way you cut the shapes but you will cut portions after its baked. Before you put it in the oven sprinkle some water on top of the baclava and then bake on high heat for about 40 mins, or until it becomes brown on top.

While it bakes, start preparing the syrup :

Put a large pot on the kitchen hob. Throw all the ingredients for the syrup in and with a wooden spoon stir and leave to boil without stirring for 5 mins.at this point grate some lemon zest.

Make sure you make the syrup when the baclava is almost fully baked.

Take out the hot tray of baclava and put it on the kitchen top. Take the pot of syrup and lather carefully on the baclava, till the point that the tray is full.

Let it cool for an hour and then put it in the fridge. After a couple of hours, and this is the max anyone can wait before their..turn to try this. It can keep in the fridge for about 4 days for maximum pleasure.

I usually cut a tiny piece and serve it in a bowl with some chocolate ice cream and a bit of whipped cream..careful not to eat a lot of this, although you want to..its far too fattening xx