Baklava

Super-sticky baklava... Probably not how they would serve it in Turkey, but I love it slightly warm with vanilla ice-cream :-P

Baklava

For the baklava:
200 g chopped hazelnuts
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
200 g filo pastry
75 g unsalted butter, melted

For the syrup:
200 g white sugar
200 ml water
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp clear honey

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix the hazelnuts, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

Butter a large oblong roasting tin (approx 30 x 18 cm). Cover it neatly with five sheets of pastry, buttering each layer before lifting it from the stack. Allow the excess pastry to hang over the edge of the tin.

Spread half of the hazelnut filling on evenly. Cover with three more layers of buttered pastry and spread over the rest of the filling.

Fold over the overhanging pastry, buttering each layer first.

Cut away the excess pastry at the edges if needed, so that it fits the dish neatly.

Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the baklava into triangular or square shapes without cutting all the way to the base. Otherwise it will be impossible to cut the filo pastry neatly once it's cooked.

Sprinkle a bit of cold water over the baklava with your fingers (to stop the edges curling) and bake for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes turn the heat up to 190C and bake for another 15 minutes until light golden.

Take out the baklava and let it cool slightly.

For the syrup, boil all the ingredients apart from the honey. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the honey and simmer for 5 more minutes, stirring until lightly thickened.

Remove the cinnamon stick and pour the syrup slowly over the baklava.

Allow to stand for 10 minutes so it absorbs the syrup. Cut and carefully lift the pieces individually.

Quick seedy yogurt bread

I love this bread... It's really quick to make, no kneading, rising or proving, and it's perfect for breakfast. It's made with normal plain flour so no need for bread flour. It's easy to cut, freezes and toasts well - what else can you ask for?
You can make it with mixed chopped nuts or with a mixture of seeds and either way it tastes great.


Seedy yogurt bread

1 tbsp sunflower oil
375 g plain flour
125 g wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp each of sesame and poppy seeds (or 90 g of mixed chopped nuts)
90 g sunflower seeds
1 tsp runny honey
170 g yogurt *
340 g milk *
2 tbsp sunflower seeds, for sprinkling

Grease a loaf tin with some sunflower oil.

Sift the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cream of tartar in a large bowl. Add the seeds (sesame, poppy and 90g of sunflower) or the mixed nuts and stir.

Mix the honey, milk, yogurt and oil together and then stir into the dry ingredients. Mix to form a soft dough.

Pour the dough into the loaf tin and flatten the top with a spatula. Sprinkle the sunflower seeds.

Bake at 180C for 1 hour until golden and risen. Take out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

* In total you need 500 ml between the milk and the yogurt. I buy 170 g pots of yogurt, so I need to use 340 g of milk to complete the 500 ml. If you have a different size of yogurt, adjust the milk to get to 500 ml.