Armenian Paklava

Armenian Paklava

By Kim Ohanian

9 March 2023

 
I’ve never made Baklava before, as I always thought it was difficult to make. Kim offered to teach a few of us how to make this delicious dessert. This is her recipe that she and her Mother made all the time. Four of us spent a few hours in her kitchen yesterday. This is an Armenian Paklava, which is similar to the Greek Baklava, but does not include honey. As we made this together, I jotted down some notes.
 
Ingredients:
 

  

1 package filo dough – thawed in refrigerator if frozen
3/4 lb unsalted butter – clarified*
1 lb walnuts – chopped
1 t. cinnamon
2 C. plus 3 T sugar
1/4 t. rose water or lemon juice
1 C. water
 
*Note: Place butter in small saucepan and heat over low heat until completely melted. Skim off the creamy white layer.  The clear butter remaining is the clarified butter.
 

  

Directions:

 
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
 
In a bowl, mix together walnuts, cinnamon and 3 T sugar. Brush the bottom and sides of an 8-1/2” x 11” baking pan with clarified butter. Place one sheet of filo dough in the pan (fold sides as needed to fit in the pan) and brush with clarified butter. Continue placing sheets of filo dough in pan until half the sheets are used. Make sure you brush with clarified butter after you add each sheet.

Add walnut filling and spread evenly over filo dough. Add remaining sheets of filo dough, remembering to brush each sheet with clarified butter. If you have any clarified butter remaining, pour over top layer. Cut pastry into approximately 2 inch squares and cut each square into two triangles.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until top is golden, then lower to 350 degrees and bake an additional 45 minutes. Total baking time is 1 hour.

 

Remove from oven and cool.
 
While pastry is cooling, prepare syrup. In a saucepan, combine 2 cups sugar, water, and rose-water or lemon juice. Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring continuously until sugar is dissolved.
 
Pour syrup over cooled pasty, let stand a few minutes, tip baking pan and pour syrup back into saucepan. You will perform this process three additional times. This allows the syrup to be absorbed by the pastry and not pool at the bottom.

Serve at Room temperature.

 
This made 64 pieces.  See photo of nutrition facts, in which I used verywellfit.com.
 
Notes:
 
Do not use a glass baking pan or a Teflon baking pan, as you don’t want the Paklava to slip out when you are tilting the pan to remove the syrup.
 
Buy Vietnamese cinnamon, as it is highly aromatic.
 
We melted/clarified 1 lb of butter, but not all of it went into the pan.
 
Pulse the walnuts in a food processor into small pieces.
 
Optional to use lemon juice, but Kim always uses rose water.
 
We used two sheets of filo at a time, not one. As we repeated the layers, we turned the pan around and folded the ends on the opposite side –alternating each side. For the last layer, fold down for a nice finish.
 
Since we moved pretty quickly to lay down the filo, Kim stated we didn’t need to cover the filo with a cloth. If you are taking a lot of time, it’s best to cover the filo.
 
Use a pastry brush to brush the clarified butter.
 
Place the pan in the refrigerator 45 to 60 minutes, as this will help you to cut the Paklava easier.
 
The oven was preheated before taking the pan out of the refrigerator.
 
When cutting the Paklava, some of the top layers stuck to the knife and fingers. I suggested dipping your fingers in the leftover butter to help keep the filo in place and not sticking to the knife and fingers. Make sure you use a very sharp knife.

 
We let the Paklava cool for about an hour before adding the syrup.

Each piece was placed in a mini cupcake liner.
 
Store in an air-tight container [can be stored for several days]. Don’t refrigerate, as the filo will soften and you’ll miss the enjoyment of the flaky dough.
 
This can be prepared ahead of time and frozen BEFORE baking.  
 
“Pak” meaning Lent, and “halva” meaning sweet, this dish is traditionally made with 40 layers of dough to represent the 40 days of Lent and is served after Easter services.”