After making the apple pomegranate boreks I found myself with a lot of leftover phyllo dough. About the only other phyllo dessert I know is baklava, but I didn’t just want to make another honey and nut baklava. I was thinking of other flavours that might compliment the pistachios, almonds and butter. Then it struck me that sweetened condensed milk has a similar viscosity to honey and might go nicely with the nuts and butter. For flavor, I remembered I still had a brick of vanilla beans in the freezer that my friend got me from Madagascar and decided they would go nicely with the milk rather than a more traditional spice like cardamom.
To maximize the vanilla flavour, I added the scraped out beans to the nut mixture and steeped the pods in the sweetened condensed milk to make a vanilla milk syrup.
I won’t even try to make any claim to authenticity here, but I personally enjoyed this more than the traditional baklavas I’ve made in the past. While they’re rich and creamy on their own, these are even better with a cup of hot tea (or even hot water). I’m not sure what it is, but this baklava goes from having a sweet, slightly creamy flavor to being a creamy explosion of milk and vanilla when you eat it with tea.
This got me to thinking, are there other combination i could use? pumkin seeds + allspice + condensed milk… or perhaps pecans + maple syrup… or maybe even walnuts + honey + pomegranate molasses…
Units
Ingredients
- 1 package phyllo dough defrosted
- 1 ¼ cultured unsalted butter sticks melted (1/2 C + 2 Tbs)
- 1 Cup almonds shelled
- 2 vanilla beans
- 1 Cup pistachios shelled
- 2 tablespoons evaporated cane sugar granulated
- 1 Cup condensed milk sweetened
Instructions
- Move the oven rack to the bottom middle position and pre-heat to 300 degrees F.
- Add the almonds to a food processor and pulse a few times until they resemble a rough gravel. Slice the vanilla beans down the center and scrape out the "beans", adding them to the food processor along with the pistachios and sugar (save the pods for later). Continue pulsing another 12-15 times until the nuts are chopped into small pieces.
- To assemble the baklava, brush a generous amount of melted butter onto the bottom and sides of a 9x9 baking pan. Unroll the phyllo dough and cut in half (you should have two 9"x14" stacks of phyllo). Starting at the edge of the pan closest to you, place a sheet of phyllo at the bottom allowing the extra phyllo to drape over the edge furthest from you. Brush the phyllo with melted butter. Fold the extra 5" of phyllo hanging off the side furthest from you onto itself. Brush the top of this surface with butter then lay another piece of phyllo down starting from the edge furthest from you (so the overhang is closest to you), butter then fold the overhang over. Repeat 4 more times.
- Sprinkle about half of the nut mixture evenly over the phyllo. Layer another 4 sheets of phyllo using technique above (buttering and alternating sides you overlap). Evenly spread the rest of the nut mixture on the phyllo and cover with 6 sheets of phyllo using the technique above. To finish, cut 2 sheets of phyllo to be exactly 9"x9", butter and layer. Press down gently on the baklava to allow the nuts to settle.
- Using a serrated edge steak knife, cut the baklava (all the way through) in a crisscross pattern. Drizzle the remaining butter on top brushing the top to ensure they're evenly coated. Put it in the oven for about 1 1/2 hours or until the top is golden brown.
- To make the vanilla milk syrup, put the sweetened condensed milk in a small saucepan along with the vanilla pods and heat over low heat until the mixture is warm and bubbly. Use a spatula to try and scrape any remaining vanilla beans out of the pods and into the milk. Turn off the heat and let the pods steep in the milk until the baklava comes out of the oven.
- When the baklava is golden brown on top, remove it from the oven and immediately pour the vanilla milk syrup evenly over the cuts in the baklava (discarding the vanilla pods). Allow the baklava to cool completely in the pan. You can serve it as soon as its cooled, but it tastes best the next day.
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks Peter, although they may have been even better if I’d dipped them in chocolate;-)
Thanks JS, they’re still pretty sweet, but it’s the creaminess adds a new dimension.
Joanna, I’ve never had it, but it sounds amazing. I’ll have to find a nice Greek bakery around here so I can give it a try.
Thanks Melissa, tell us how it goes if you do give it a try.
HoneyB, I tried to change things up a bit, that’s the fun part of cooking for me:-)
Heather, ooOOO I like the sound of that although with 2 C of nuts, that would be some pricey baklava.
Christie, make friends with a CNN cameraman:-)
Ursula, I never really thought of it as a holiday dessert, but now that you mention it it does seem fitting!
Mark, thanks! I’m a little baklavaed out, but come the new year I may give one of the other combos a go.
Thanks Peter G:-)
Lorraine, mine too:-)
Thanks Darius
Gera, thanks! It sounds like a recipe for the pecan maple version will be next up for me:-)
TS 🙂
Zenchef, where exactly are you anyhow? We should meet up sometime.
Jude, it’s amazing how thin they’re able to make it. It always makes me wonder how they made it before there were machines to do it.
Thanks Shari!
Pixen, let us know how it goes if you end up trying it:-)
Thanks Ginny and Kevin!
Paul thanks. I started with a basic 3 column theme for structure, but I reworked all the styles and visuals.
Thanks Syrie, you too. Have a great holiday!
Colloquial Cook says
Wait… Did you just manage to use the words “pomegranate molasses” in a post on baklava? Marc, you evil genius!
Sophie says
Baklava is one of my favorite desserts, this was beautifully executed! The vanilla milk syrup sounds like the cherry on top.
Colloquial Cook says
Wait… Did you just manage to use the words “pomegranate molasses” in a post on baklava? Marc, you evil genius!
Sophie says
Baklava is one of my favorite desserts, this was beautifully executed! The vanilla milk syrup sounds like the cherry on top.
Stephen Shimmans says
I have never really thought about trying to make something like this, but this recipe seems quite straight forward, you have an easily readable and very informative blog. I can only hope to be as succinct one day.
Thanks for this recipe, I’m going to give it a try.
Rachel Page says
This looks superb — good job! I’ve been thinking about making baklava again sometime keep forgetting to buy the phyllo 🙂
Rouba ElAli says
Marc, if you ever have extra philo dough, you should look up armenian recipes… they use this stuff all the times… and if I remember correctly you prefer savory over sweets so I can see you coming out with really good stuff there…
Rouba ElAli says
as far as the baklava, as a middle easterner my first reaction was ‘what is this? vanilla?’ (middle easterners don’t cook with vanilla, rose water is our go to for everything)… then I read the recipe and honestly while it is nothing like the traditional I think your recipe has great potential and I will certainly be trying it. I may replace the vanilla with rose water instead or maybe a make a batch of each… overall I think your recipe is much healthier than the original we grew up with albeit not the same…
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Rouba, thanks for the suggestion. I really don’t know much about Armenian cuisine, but I’m always curious about new food cultures so will check it out. I prefer making savory foods mainly because sweet things require more precision(sticking to a recipe) and I tend to have a lot more failures than with savory foods, but I love sweet things. As for the this baklava, it wasn’t meant to be authentic, so thanks for understanding. With the vanilla beans in it it admittedly doesn’t taste like traditional baklava, but the texture is there (crispy crunchy and sticky). Substituting rosewater is a great idea (I love rosewater flavored milk).
Rouba ElAli says
tried your recipe and it tasted so much better than I imagined! I love it. thanks for another great recipe, your site is priceless!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Rouba, glad to hear it was a pleasant surprise?