I love bringing food back when you go on holiday.  Extra points when it has a bonus rude name.

One of the best things to bring back is baklava; sheets of sugar soaked crisp fill pastry studded with nuts.  I could eat an entire box.  No shame. With no holiday on the horizon until March, I will have to satisfy myself with this baklava instead.

Ingredients

12 sheets of filo pastry
125gr butter, melted
100gr chopped nuts (I used almonds and walnuts)
20gr dried cranberries
150gr ready to eat dried figs, chopped
40gr dark chocolate, chopped
200gr caster sugar
160ml water
3 cardamom pods
1tsp rose water

Method

1, Preheat your oven to 180o/c and paint the inside of your 7inch by 11inch cake tin with butter.
2, Mix the nuts, cranberries, figs and chocolate together in a small bowl and set to one side.
3, Place a sheet of fill pastry into the bottom of your tin.  Brush this with butter and lay on another sheet again, brushing this with butter.  Repeat until you have five layers.
4, Scatter some of the mixed nut evenly over the top and lay down another sheet.  Coat this with butter.  Repeat until all the nut mix has been used.
If you have any remaining fill sheets, lay these on top, coating with butter.
5, Score triangles into the top of the baklava and then bake for 15-20minutes or until golden and crisp on top.
6, While this is baking, make the syrup.  Place the sugar, water and crushed cardamom pods into a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.  Continue to simmer this until it has reduced to a syrup, like very runny honey.  Remove from the heat and stir in the rosewater.
7, When the baklava is fully cooked, remove from the oven and leave in the tin.  Pour over the sugar syrup and leave until cool.  Using the triangles you cut earlier in the top layers as a guideline, slice into small pieces before serving.

 

I’m entering this into We Should Cocoa, the theme being figs.  You can read all about We Should Cocoa and how to enter by clicking here.