Delicious Vegan Baklava with no refined sugar!
March 27 2012 |
This baklava is a modified version of a recipe I found in Christina Pirello’s book, “Cooking The Whole Foods Way”. It’s so easy and fun to make and would be great to take to a party. Plus there is no refined sugar and pretty loaded in protein! Usually baklava is saturated in butter…but no animal products in this one! Flaky, delicate layers with a burst of citrus in each bite! So good, I’m tempted to eat it all in one day!
What you’ll need:
2 cups finely chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups finely chopped almonds
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of sea salt
1 (1-pound) package Organic Phyllo Pastry sheets (I like Fillo Factory)
About 1 cup of Avocado Oil
FOR THE ORANGE SYRUP:
2 cups organic brown rice syrup
Grated zest of 2 oranges
Pinch of sea salt
3 Tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 13 X 9-inch baking sheet and set aside.
2) Combine walnuts, almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sea salt. I found it easy to quickly chop them in a food processor. Set aside.
3) On a dry, flat work surface, remove sheets of phyllo and lay them flat. Cover phyllo with a damp paper towel while you work (so it doesn’t dry out). Fold a sheet of phyllo in half so it is the size of the baking pan. Lay it in the bottom of the pan and brush lightly with oil. Repeat with 3 more sheets of phyllo, brushing each layer with avocado oil, creating a base of 8 layers of dough.
4) Sprinkle about 1 1/2 (a little less) cups of the nut mixture evenly over the dough.
5) Drizzle about 1/2 cup of the orange syrup over the mixture.
6) Layer another 4 sheets of phyllo dough (each sheet is folded in half and so it makes a total of 8 layers. Brush on a bit of avocado oil between layers for perfect flakiness.
7) Sprinkle on another 1 1/2 cups of the nut mixture, followed by drizzling on another generous 1/2 cup of orange syrup.
8 ) Do the last layers of phyllo (I did 3 sheets for the last layer), brushing each layer with avocado oil.
9) Put a light coating of avocado oil (remember the edges!) on the top layer and sprinkle on remaining nut mixture. Drizzle on about 1/4 cup of orange syrup, bake for 35 minutes.
10) When you take it out of the oven, drizzle on the rest of the orange syrup and place on a cooling rack. Slice after letting it cool about 10 minutes. Wait till it cools, then eat!
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