Pecan Bourbon Baklava
A luxurious Middle Eastern-inspired dessert featuring layers of flaky phyllo dough filled with bourbon-spiced pecans and drizzled with a honey-bourbon syrup. This decadent baklava combines traditional Mediterranean techniques with Southern American flavors.
Ingredients
- •1¼ sticks unsalted butter
- •1 lb pecans
- •⅓ cup sugar
- •1 tsp cinnamon
- •9 sheets phyllo dough
- •¾ cup mild honey
- •¾ cup sugar
- •½ cup water
- •5 whole cloves
- •3 strips lemon zest
- •⅜ cup bourbon
- •to taste vanilla frozen yogurt or ice cream
- •to taste fresh figs and cherries
Cooking Instructions
- 1.
Preheat oven to 375 ̊F with rack in the middle. Lightly brush a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with melted butter.
5 min
- 2.
Pulse pecans, sugar, and cinnamon in a food processor until finely chopped.
5 min
- 3.
Cut phyllo sheets in half crosswise, forming 18 (12 by 8 1/2-inch) sheets, then arrange in 1 stack and cover with plastic wrap.
5 min
- 4.
Keeping remaining phyllo covered and working quickly, place 1 sheet on a work surface and gently brush with butter. Top with another sheet and brush with butter. Continue layering until you have a stack of 6 buttered sheets. Transfer stack to the baking dish and sprinkle with one-third of the pecan mixture. Build a second stack of 3 phyllo sheets, buttering between each layer. Transfer to a baking dish sprinkle with half of remaining pecan mixture. Repeat with another stack of 3 buttered sheets and sprinkle with remaining pecan mixture. Top with a stack of 6 buttered sheets.
20 min
- 5.
Score pastry with a sharp knife in quarters lengthwise, then score on a diagonal making 6 cuts about 2 inches apart to create a diamond pattern.
5 min
- 6.
Bake baklava 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 ̊F until top is golden, 40-45 minutes more.
60 min
- 7.
Bring honey, sugar, water, cloves, zest, and 1/4 cup bourbon to a simmer in a small pot, stirring until sugar and honey have dissolved. Remove from heat and let stand while baklava finishes baking.
10 min
- 8.
When baklava has finished baking, transfer in pan to a rack. Boil syrup until reduced to 1 1/2 cups, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in remaining 2 Tbsp bourbon. Discard zest and cloves and pour hot syrup to be absorbed and flavors to develop. Cut into diamonds by cutting lengthwise into fourths, then diagonally across.
15 min
