Egypt Recipe (Week 4) | Baklava Bites

Think back to our Egypt interview with Mrs. Bascharon a couple of weeks ago.  I asked her what her favorite Egyptian food is.  Do you remember her answer?  She mentioned that her favorite food is stuffed grape leaves and her favorite dessert is baklava (with an exclamation point).  I like baklava with an exclamation point too!

I am part Greek and baklava is a traditional Greek dessert as well.  So growing up I was lucky enough to have it at least 2 or 3 times a year.  Since Mrs. Bascharon mentioned it is her favorite dessert, and since I am a baklava fan as well, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share this recipe with you.

Traditional baklava, as shown in the feature photo at the top of the post (courtesy of wikimedia commons) can be rather time consuming to assemble because it is made with paper thin layers of dough called phyllo dough.  The dough must remain moist and the sheets of dough need to be brushed with melted butter quickly.  Not the easiest recipe for a rookie.  So assuming there may be some rookie baklava chefs among you, I simplified the recipe.  In this version the baklava filling is dropped into little phyllo dough cups that can be purchased in the freezer section at most grocery stores.  So without further delay, I present to you…Baklava Bites!

Ingredients

• 1 package frozen phyllo (also spelled filo) cups
• 1/2 cup walnuts (you could also reduce the walnuts to 1/4 cup and add 1/4 cup pistachios)
• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• 2-3 drops fresh squeezed lemon juice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 °
2. Place nuts on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven at 375° for 6-8 minutes, or until lightly toasted.  They will really begin to smell good!  Remove and set cookie sheet on a wire rack to cool.  Reduce the oven temperature to 350°.
3. Add the nuts, cinnamon, sugar and salt to a food processor.  I actually used the chop setting on my blender and it worked well.  Pulse until the nuts are finely chopped.  Pour the mixture into a small bowl and add the melted butter, honey and lemon drops.  Stir to combine.
4. Fill the phyllo cups with a spoonful of the mixture and bake at 350° for 5-6 minutes.  Remove from the oven and drizzle each cup with a little more honey.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

My family and I sampled these right away and we all really liked them.  I have to admit I do like traditional baklava a bit more but these baklava bites were so much easier to make that I will be making this version a lot more often.  I hope you like them too.  After you make a batch please leave me a comment to let me know how they turned out!