Rolled Baklava
This Rolled Baklava recipe is from my mother herself and it is hands down, the best rolled Baklava I have ever tried. It is crispy on the outside, crunchy on the inside, and infused with a vanilla lemon flavor. Trust me, the hints of vanilla and lemon in my mom's recipe, makes this recipe different than the rest and I think you will love it just as much as I do!
Servings: 36 pieces
Equipment
- 1 wooden skewer
- 1 medium saucepan
- 1 pastry brush
- 1 8x12 or 9x13 baking dish
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups water
- 2 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 2 (8g) packets vanilla sugar
- zest of 1 lemon save for later
Baklava
- 1 lb package phyllo pastry sheets
- 2 ¾ sticks butter
- ¾ cup bread crumbs
- 2 cups walnuts chopped
Instructions
- Thaw phyllo pastry sheets per packaged instructions.
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- In a medium saucepan add water, granulated sugar, and vanilla sugar. Over medium heat, bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil, lower temperature and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely. *Do not add lemon zest until just before pouring over baked Baklava.
- Place one phyllo sheet on a flat working surface and lightly brush with melted butter. Add another phyllo sheet on top and brush lightly with melted butter.
- Sprinkle about 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs over the second buttered phyllo pastry sheet.
- Place the wooden skewer on the shorter end of the pastry sheet and roll once, just enough to cover the wooden skewer.
- Along the edge of the rolled wooden skewer, add 3-4 tablespoons of crushed walnuts.
- Finish rolling the two phyllo pastry sheets all the way. Once rolled, scrunch the baklava roll tightly and remove the wooden skewer from the inside.
- Transfer the rolled pastry sheets into a lightly greased baking pan.
- Repeat process until you have used up all phyllo pastry sheets.
- Cut vertically down the baking pan into equal sections.
- Brush the remaining of the melted butter over the top of the baklava rolls.
- Transfer into a preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. The rolled Baklava should be golden brown.
- Remove from oven and immediately pour cooled sugar syrup with lemon zest over the hot Baklava. It will sizzle.
- Allow rolled Baklava to sit in baking dish uncovered at room temperature for at least 6 hours. This will allow Baklava to soak up all of the sugar syrup and settle in all of the flavor.
