- Phyllo pastry, buttered layer by layer
- Chopped walnuts (or pistachios), cinnamon
- Honey or sugar syrup with lemon
Baklava
Baklava, the honeyed phyllo sweet. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Baklava is the layered phyllo sweet: dozens of buttered phyllo sheets around chopped walnuts (or pistachios), baked crisp and soaked in honey or sugar syrup with lemon and cinnamon.
It is eaten in small diamond pieces, with Greek coffee, at celebrations and holidays. The layers should shatter; the syrup should glisten but not drown. Northern Greece, with its Ottoman heritage, makes some of the best.
Key ingredients
Where to try it
- Zacharoplasteia (sweet shops) across Greece.
- Thessaloniki's old sweet shops, a legacy of the Ottoman city.
- At Easter and Christmas tables, in family-sized trays.