My husband recently had a chance to spend a few days in Greece, courtesy of the good ol’ U.S. Navy. Unfortunately, I did not. If I could insert a sad face emoticon here, I would.
This looked really easy and WAY less syrupy, so I thought I’d give it a try, since I clearly wasn’t getting the real deal in Greece. They were nice little bite size pieces, good and sweet and not too over-powering. They had just a smidgen of lemon zest in them, which added a really nice flavor – I never would have thought to add it, but it really makes a difference, a good contrast to the sweetness.
Baklava Cups
from Cooking for Real
Yields: 30 mini Baklava cups
1/2 cup pistachios
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup almonds
1 lemon, zested
1/4 cup, plus 3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 boxes mini phyllo shells, 15 shells each
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup honey
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Toast the nuts about 8 minutes until they smell toasted (your nose will know when they’re done).
Once the nuts have cooled slightly, add them to a food processor with the lemon zest, 3 tablespoons of sugar, butter, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla and pulse to combine (you can grind it up as fine as you like, but I like having little bits of nuts so you can tell what they are).
Spray 2 mini muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray. Place mini phyllo in pans. Place 1 teaspoon of the nut mixture in each shell. Bake 9-10 minutes until filling is hot.
Meanwhile, heat water, 1/4 cup sugar and honey in a small saucepan over medium. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook 8-10 minutes until the mixture has reduced and thickens. Pour 1 teaspoon syrup into each cup. Refrigerate at least 5 hours before serving.
*Notes: I used only walnuts because that’s what I had, and they tasted just fine.
Next time, I’m going if I have to stowaway on the submarine!
LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this recipe!! I made a couple of changes… My sister is allergic to cinnamon, so I omitted it from the recipe (I’m sure it would be fantastic with it as well). I already had pecans on hand so used that instead of walnuts (they do tast similar). And the last thing is that I don’t have a food processor, so I had to chop all the ingredients as small as possible (which wasn’t that small, but we all loved the texture). Seriously amazing!! Turned out MUCH better than expected and I can’t wait to make it again! Thank you so much for this recipe (wish I could post a picture of what mine ended up looking like). =)
I’m SO glad that you liked them!