Simple Vegan Greek Baklava
Here it is friends, the easiest vegan baklava recipe you’ll ever try!
Greek baklava is a traditional dessert that generally consists of three main ingredients - filo pastry, walnuts and honey syrup.
This vegan Greek baklava doesn’t use a honey syrup, but instead has an equally sweet, sticky and delicious syrup utilising vegan friendly ingredients such as maple syrup and lemon juice.
The stickiness holds up in this vegan baklava recipe, and is sure to be a hit with Greeks or anyone who is looking for a simple syrupy dessert.
With this recipe I find chucking your walnuts into a food processor a much easier process than chopping them yourself. If you use the pulse function on your food processor a few times, it helps give the walnuts a varying texture and sizes, which works perfectly as a filling.
The most time consuming part of this recipe is layering and buttering your filo pastry, but it is absolutely worth the trouble to get one of the best tasting vegan Greek baklava recipes you’ll ever try.
Try this easy vegan baklava for yourself!
INGREDIENTS
◾ 450g walnuts, crushed
◾ 1 tsp ground cinnamon
◾ Vegan butter, softened and used for brushing
◾ 375g (phyllo) fillo pastry
◾ 1 cup sugar
◾ 3/4 cup water
◾ 2 tbsp lemon juice
◾ 1/2 cup maple syrup (or rice malt syrup)
METHOD
▪️ Preheat the oven to 160c and prepare a 9 x 13" oven dish by brushing with vegan butter
▪️ In a large bowl, mix together your walnuts and cinnamon until well combined
▪️ Cut your filo pastry in half so it fits your oven dish. Lay one sheet of fillo, brush with butter and then repeat another 9 times - brush every sheet with butter
▪️ Sprinkle 1 cup of walnut mixture on pastry. Genty and evenly spread
▪️ Lay a further 5 sheets, brushing each with butter.
▪️ Sprinkle 1 cup of walnut mixture on pastry. Genty and evenly spread
▪️ Lay a further 5 sheets, brushing each with butter. Repeat this step for another 2 times, ensuring the last 5 sheets are pastry
▪️ Cut baklava into equal long strips, and then cut diagonally to make diamond shapes.
▪️ Place in the oven for roughly 1hr and 15 minutes or until golden brown
▪️ Meanwhile, in a small saucepan on a low heat, add sugar, water, lemon juice and maple syrup. Stir and allow to simmer for roughly 3 minutes.
▪️ Remove mixture from heat and allow to cool.
▪️ Remove baklava from the oven and allow to cool before pouring over your syrup. Allow syrup to soak for at least 2 hours before serving - just to ensure all the cuts and layers soak up that delicious syrup!
