Delicious Homemade Baklava!

Baklava is a unique sweet treat, usually enjoyed after a wholesome dinner. Its origins may lie in Turkey, Persia or Greece (stories differ), but it surely is being enjoyed all over the world nowadays! Although not exactly being a healthy product on its own, a little square of baklava can be a true treat that you and your friends deserve to enjoy! Our recipe with SweetLife Xylitol instead of sugar and St. John’s Bread Syrup (a.k.a. Carob Syrup) instead of honey let’s you enjoy more responsibly with fewer calories.

Recipe for 24 servings:

Ingredients:

•    200g  SweetLife Xylitol
•    0.2L water
•    1/2 cup SweetLife St. John’s Bread Syrup (a.k.a. Carob Syrup)
•    2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
•    +- 450g phyllo dough (unfrozen)
•    200g unsalted butter melted
•    200g pistachios finely chopped
•   1 tablespoon grounded cinnamon

Preperation:

1.     In preparation to making the baklava preheat your oven to 165ºC degrees. Pour the chopped pistachios and cinnamon into a bowl and mix them together. Set the bowl aside to be used at a later time.
2.     We start off by making the syrup. To make the syrup grab a saucepan and put it over medium high heat. Add the SweetLife Xylitol, water, SweetLife St. John’s Bread Syrup and lemon juice and bring it to a boil. Make sure to keep stirring the mixture until the SweetLife Xylitol dissolves. After the SweetLife Xylitol is dissolved reduce the heat to low and let the syrup simmer on its own for exactly 4 minutes. When you’re done put the pan aside and let the syrup cool down.
3.     We now move on to preparing the baking dish and the phyllo dough. We start off by greasing a +- 30 x 20cm glass baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the melted butter. Open your phyllo dough package and cut to fit the size of the dish you are using. Tip: Cover the phyllo dough sheets with a damp towel so they won’t dry out while you’re working with them.
4.     Now we move on to making the first and most important layer of the baklava. Lay the first sheet of phyllo on the bottom of the dish and gently brush it with a thin layer of butter. Keep on repeating this for the next layers until you have 10 layers in total. Grab the pistachios and cinnamon mixture and evenly sprinkle about 40g cup on top of the stack.
5.     For the remaining layers lay a stack of 5 phyllo sheets over the pistachios and cinnamon mixture with a thin layer of butter between every sheet. Evenly sprinkle pistachios and cinnamon mixture on top. Repeat the layers of 5 buttered phyllo sheets and the mixture until the mixture is used up. Then top the whole thing off with 10 buttered up phyllo sheets.
6.     After topping the last layer off with butter, slice the baklava into one-and-a-half inch strips across, then diagonally. Put it in the oven for one hour and 25 minutes until the baklava is a beautiful golden-brown.
7.     After taking it out of the oven, gently pour the syrup mixture over the entire dish. Let it cool down (ideally overnight) and the baklava is ready to be served.

Now enjoy your SweetLife healthier baklava with guests, friends and family! 

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