Make rich and flaky Pistachio Baklava without the traditional time commitment. Forget meticulously layering dozens of sheets – we'll achieve a stunning layered effect with a simpler technique. Our clever shortcut method rolls two pistachio sprinkled layers of phyllo dough, eliminating the need for tedious layering.
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a standard muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray and set it to the side.
Combine the finely chopped pistachios with the granulated sugar, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg. Mix to combine and set aside.
1 cup pistachios, ½ cup sugar, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon cardamom, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon cloves
Unroll the filo (phyllo) dough. Lift off half of the stack of thin sheets, folding over itself and covering with a damp dish towel.
½ package Filo dough
Brush the top of the remaining rectangle of filo (phyllo) dough lightly with the melted butter. Sprinkle one third (⅓) of the pistachio mixture evenly over the buttered surface of the dough.
⅔ cup butter
Remove the damp dish towel from the half of the dough you set aside earlier. Carefully stack it on top of the pistachio sprinkled rectangle. Brush lightly with the melted butter, and sprinkle the second third of the pistachio mixture over the buttered surface.
Working from the short end, gently but firmly roll up the buttered and nut covered filo dough rectangle like a jelly roll. Cut into 12 slices.
Gently transfer each slice to the prepared muffin pan, placing a slice into each of the muffin pan cavities.
Liberally brush each baklava pinwheel with the melted butter, getting the brush down around the sides. There should be no butter remaining.
Sprinkle the top of each baklava pinwheel with the remaining third of the finely chopped pistachio mixture. Bake in the prepared 350℉ oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
When done, remove from the oven. Evenly distribute the hot honey syrup over all the hot baklava pinwheels. Both the honey syrup and the pinwheels must be HOT. You will not have any leftover honey syrup.
Allow to cool for 10 to 20 minutes, then you can carefully transfer the baklava pinwheels to a serving platter or a wire rack to finish cooling.
Garnish each baklava pinwheel with a few coarse pistachio pieces and a few rose petal flakes. Serve warm or room temperature.
2 tablespoon Rose petals, 2 tablespoon Pistachios
Honey Syrup
While the baklava pinwheels are baking, prepare the honey syrup.
Add the honey, water, sugar, and lemon juice to a small sauce pan. Bring to a rolling boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 5 minutes.
½ cup honey, ¼ cup water, ¼ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Notes
The filling pistachios should be chopped very fine, a mini food processor works fabulous.
The honey syrup is always 1 part honey, ½ part water, and ½ part sugar.
Instead of lemon juice, you can add ½ teaspoon rose water, or ½ teaspoon almond extract.
Makes 12 large pinwheels when rolled up from the narrow end of the rectangle, or 18 smaller pinwheels when rolled up from the long end of the dough rectangle.
Double the filling, melted butter, and honey syrup for making both rolls of Phyllo dough.