Recipe: Baklava
Chef Mounir Toub introduced the whole of the Netherlands to the riches of Arab cuisine via 24Kitchen. In his new book Chef Toub: Deliciously Arabic, he also shows just how surprisingly versatile these dishes are, how beautiful and colourful, and above all how easy they are to make yourself at home. From easy midweek meals to pulling out all the stops at the weekend; in this book he takes you along with his motto “Cook and eat with lots of love and pleasure”.
Mounir Toub: “You can make baklava with different ingredients and in different shapes. My version consists of seven rolls that I cut into six pieces before baking. Just like lasagne, you can also build baklava up layer by layer.”
How to make the baklava
- Preheat the oven to 190 °C. Grease the baking tin with butter.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan. Cut the baklava pastry to the same width as the baking tin and keep it in a clean, dry tea towel to prevent it from drying out.
- Heat 300 g honey with 20 ml orange blossom water in a pan and keep this mixture warm. In a mixing bowl, stir the salted butter, 500 g ground walnuts, the remaining honey and orange blossom water, and the cinnamon together.
- Divide the mixture into seven equal portions (approximately 90 g each).
- Brush a sheet of baklava pastry with melted butter. Place a second sheet on top and brush that with butter too. Take one portion of the walnut mixture and distribute it along the bottom of the baklava pastry. Roll it up into a log, place it in the baking tin and brush with melted butter. Prepare the remaining logs in the same way.
- Immediately cut each log into six pieces with a sharp knife. Bake the baklava in the oven for approximately 25 minutes until golden brown and crisp.
- Remove the baking tin from the oven and pour the warm honey over the baklava. Immediately garnish with the remaining finely ground walnuts. Leave the baklava to cool for at least 3 hours before enjoying it.
Title: Chef Toub: Deliciously Arabic
Author: Mounir Toub
Price: €24,99
Publisher: Kosmos
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