Baklava Butter Board
While baklava is the all-time classic Greek phyllo dessert, my baklava butter board is a classic reinvented with a drizzling of fun! Traditional baklava is packed with nuts such as walnuts, pistachios and/or almonds, and sweetened with a honey syrup or a simple syrup. It’s usually redolent of warm spices such as cinnamon. Tehre are dozens of recipes and versions for baklava all over the Eastern Mediterranean, dozens, in fact, within Greece’s regional cuisines alone. This almost instant version is meant to be fun, my contribution to the silly butter board trend that took over the internet in 2022!
-
2
sheets commercial phyllo
number 7
-
2
tablespoons
melted butter
-
2
teaspoons
sugar
-
½
pound
good butter
preferably unsalted, at room temperature, but not too soft
-
1 ½
cups
coarsely chopped walnuts
or a combination of walnuts, pistachios and/or almonds
-
Cinnamon powder for sprinkling
-
3
tablespoons
Greek honey
preferably Ikarian pine honey
-
1
green or Fuji apple
cut into wedges
-
Preheat the oven to 350F/170C.
-
Place a sheet of phyllo inside a baking tray (you can line it with parchment if desired), drizzle it with a tablespoon of melted butter and sprinkle with a teaspoon of sugar. Crinkle it up loosely. Repeat with the second sheet, placing on top of the first and crinkling that, too, once you’ve drizzled it with butter and sprinkled it with sugar. Bake for 6 – 8 minutes, until golden and crisp. Remove and set aside to cool.
-
Dollop spoonfuls of butter on a nice cutting board and spread it around with the back of the spoon to make a decorative, wavy surface.
-
Sprinkle with the walnuts and cinnamon. Crack and break the phyllo into small pieces over the top of the butter and nuts. Sprinkle with a little more cinnamon if desired. Drizzle with honey and place crisp apple slices around the butter to serve.