Quick Easy Baklava Recipe
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Baklava, first tasted while traveling in Turkey, gets a quick and easy homemade version here — a mix of walnuts and pistachios, and a lot less sugar than tradition calls for.
Baklava was first tasted while traveling in Turkey 15 years ago. It’s a pastry made of many thin layers of unleavened filo dough, filled with chopped nuts and honey, along with a few spices. There are countless variations on baklava depending on the region — even each family tends to have its own secret version. This post shares a quick, easy version to try at home.
Sweets abroad tend to get skipped, except in India, since they usually contain eggs or gelatin. During a week-long stay at a hotel in Turkey, dessert was skipped every night — until a waiter, curious why, asked around and tracked down something that could actually be eaten: baklava. It’s been enjoyed a few times since. Looking for an easy baklava recipe for a Christmas party some time later, it seemed complicated at first — until a BBC Bake Off episode made it look approachable enough to try.
Table of Contents
What Is Baklava?
Baklava is a pastry made of many thin layers of unleavened filo dough, filled with chopped nuts and honey along with a few spices. It originates from the Mediterranean and Middle East, though it’s popular well beyond those regions today. Like most pastries, it’s generally high in fat and sugar, which is why it tends to be an occasional treat here — usually made once a year, for Christmas or New Year.
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How to Make Quick Easy Baklava?
Ingredients List
- 450g filo pastry
- 250g unsalted butter, melted
- 250g walnuts & pistachios, chopped
- 1 tbsp pistachios, for garnish
- 350g caster sugar, 250ml water
- Juice of ½ lemon
Cooking Instructions
Prep:
Heat the oven to 180°C (356°F). Brush a deep rectangular baking dish with melted butter.
Chop the Nuts:
Chop the nuts finely by hand, or blitz them in a food processor.
Layer the Pastry:
Unwrap the filo pastry and keep it covered with a damp cloth to stop it drying out. Place a sheet in the bottom of the dish, brush with melted butter, and repeat — folding or trimming sheets to fit — until half the pastry is used. Add the chopped nuts in a single layer, then continue layering the remaining pastry on top, brushing each sheet with butter.
Score:
Once the top sheet is brushed with butter, cut through all the layers into diamond shapes with a sharp knife.
Bake:
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden and crisp. Cool completely before adding the syrup.
Make the Syrup:
Combine the sugar, water and lemon juice in a pan and heat gently, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
Finish:
Pour the hot syrup over the cooled baklava. Let it cool completely before cutting and serving, garnished with the remaining pistachios.
Serving Suggestions
Baklava is rich, so a little goes a long way. Try it:
As a holiday treat: the usual occasion here — Christmas or New Year.
With coffee or tea: a classic pairing for something this sweet.
In small pieces: the diamond-cut shape makes portioning easy.
Tips for Quick Easy Baklava
Use a hand grater for the nuts: a Swiss-made Zyliss hand grater with the bigger attachment makes quick, even work of chopping the nuts, without altering their molecular structure the way heat from a food processor motor can.
Small quantities work better by hand: the amount of nuts needed here is often too little to blitz efficiently in a food processor anyway.
Balance the pistachio cost: unsalted pistachios can be expensive if they’re not grown locally — using about 30% pistachios and the rest walnuts keeps things balanced without losing the flavor.
Finding Filo Pastry
Filo pastry is easy to find in Balkan or Turkish grocery stores, and in recent years, larger supermarkets have started stocking it in the international food aisle too. Making filo from scratch is notoriously tricky and time-consuming, so store-bought is the easy way to go here.
Ways to Flavor This Baklava
A few optional twists are worth trying: flavor the syrup with orange flower water, cardamom, or rose water — just pick one. Once the sugar syrup has cooled to about 40°C, a tablespoon of honey can also be stirred in for a more traditional touch.
A Little Less Sweet
The sugar in this version has been scaled back from most traditional recipes, and the honey usually found in baklava has been left out altogether — small adjustments that make it a little less sweet without losing what makes baklava baklava.
Watch the Video
Recipe Card
Quick Easy Baklava Recipe
- Total Time: 60
- Yield: 25 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
A quick, simplified baklava made with store-bought filo pastry and a mix of walnuts and pistachios — less sweet than tradition, and no honey needed.
Ingredients
- FOR THE BAKLAVA
- 450g ready-made filo pastry
- 250g unsalted butter, melted
- 250g walnuts and pistachios, chopped or blitzed
- 1 tablespoon pistachios, for garnish
- FOR THE SYRUP
- 350g caster sugar
- 250ml water
- Juice of half a lemon
Instructions
-
Prep:
Heat the oven to 180°C (356°F). Brush a deep rectangular baking dish with melted butter.
-
Chop the Nuts:
Chop the nuts finely by hand, or blitz them in a food processor.
-
Layer the Pastry:
Unwrap the filo pastry and keep it covered with a damp cloth to stop it drying out. Place a sheet in the bottom of the dish, brush with melted butter, and repeat — folding or trimming sheets to fit — until half the pastry is used. Add the chopped nuts in a single layer, then continue layering the remaining pastry on top, brushing each sheet with butter.
-
Score:
Once the top sheet is brushed with butter, cut through all the layers into diamond shapes with a sharp knife.
-
Bake:
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden and crisp. Cool completely before adding the syrup.
-
Make the Syrup:
Combine the sugar, water and lemon juice in a pan and heat gently, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
-
Finish:
Pour the hot syrup over the cooled baklava. Let it cool completely before cutting and serving, garnished with the remaining pistachios.
Notes
Flavor the syrup with orange flower water, cardamom, or rose water if you like — just pick one. A tablespoon of honey can be stirred into the syrup once cooled to about 40°C for a more traditional touch.
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 30
- Category: Desserts
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 25
- Calories: 225
- Fat: 11
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