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Cheese Baklava
Cheese Baklava is a traditional Syrian recipe for classic dessert of filo pastry sheets filled with cheese that are rolled, cut into portions, baked and smothered in rose water syrup before being sprinkled with pistachio nuts and served. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Syrian version of: Cheese Baklava.
prep time
60 minutes
cook time
20 minutes
Total Time:
80 minutes
Makes:
10
Rating: 
Tags : Vegetarian RecipesDessert RecipesCheese RecipesBaking RecipesSyria Recipes
This Syrian dessert or sweet snack is a direct descendant of Roman placenta and Greek plakountas and gives the lie to either of these two layered cheese and pastry dishes being 'cheesecakes'.
Ingredients:
4 sheets filo pastry (phyllo)
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
300g fresh unsalted cheese
1/2 tsp rose water
250ml (1 cup) water
500ml (2 cups) sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 star anise
1 tbsp ground pistachios
Method:
To prepare the sugar syrup: Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir until the sugar dissolves then add the lemon juice, star anise and rose water. Continue cooking, stirring for 5 minutes then take off the heat and set aside to cool down.
To prepare the baklava: take one sheet of filo pastry and brush with olive oil. Place another layer of pastry on top then spread the cheese over the top. Take two more sheets and repeat this process so you have two cheese layers and four sheets of pastry.
Fold the sides of the sheets over the filling then roll to the end. Brush olive oil over the top and cut the resulting log into wide pieces about 3cm in length.
Transfer to a baking tray then place in an oven pre-heated to 200°C (400F) and bake for 25 minutes, until golden in colour.
Take out of the oven and immediately pour over the syrup. Set aside to cool.
Sprinkle over the ground pistachios and serve.
