Hard French

Pumpkin Baklava

Name: Pumpkin Baklava
Prep time: 22 min
Cook time: 106 min
Total time: 128 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 3 cups white sugar; 2.75 cups water; 1 stick cinnamon; 3 stripss lemon or orange peel

Total Time

2h 8m

22m prep · 106m cook

Servings

4 people

Rating

—

Difficulty

Hard

27 views

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This recipe for pumpkin baklava is inspired by one that my aunt made from a recipe passed down to her from my yiayia (Greek for grandmother). I first made it with my aunt in Athens and finally recreated it at home. It's a lesser known yet traditional version of Greek baklava.

Ingredients

3 cups white sugar
2.75 cups water
1 stick cinnamon
3 stripss lemon or orange peel

Instructions

1

First make the syrup: Add white sugar, water, cinnamon stick, and citrus peel to a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, boil for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Let cool completely. (This can be done up to a week in advance; store the cooled syrup in the refrigerator until needed.)
2

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Brush a 9x13-inch baking dish with some of the melted butter.
3

Place walnut halves in a food processor and pulse several times until they resemble fine crumbs. Combine walnuts with shredded pumpkin, breadcrumbs, olive oil, sugar, cinnamon, and ground cloves. Stir until well combined.
4

Unroll phyllo dough and remove one sheet from the stack. Cover remaining phyllo with a dampened tea towel to keep from drying out as you work. Brush the sheet of dough with melted butter and lay in the prepared baking dish; press lightly so the sheet covers the bottom of the dish and comes up the sides. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Do not worry if there are some tears in any of the sheets, this is expected and won't affect the final result!
5

Spoon the pumpkin mixture over the phyllo base and level out to the sides. Fold the overhanging phyllo over the top of the pumpkin mixture.
6

Brush another sheet of phyllo dough with melted butter and lay over the pumpkin mixture. Repeat until you've topped with 6 to 8 sheets. Use your pastry brush to scrunch the overhanging phyllo down into the sides of the baking dish. Drizzle any remaining melted butter all over the top of the baklava.
7

Using a sharp knife, cut into diamond or square shapes all the way through the top layers of phyllo; do not cut through the bottom layers.
8

Bake in the preheated oven until the phyllo is a deep golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes.
9

Remove baklava from the oven and immediately ladle the cool syrup over the hot baklava. Add one ladleful at a time until all of the syrup has been added.
10

Set aside and let rest, uncovered, for 8 hours or overnight before serving.