om living
Baklava Cigars
Ingredients
Baklava Cigars
- 130 g (1 cup) almonds
- 100 g (1 cup) walnuts
- zest of 1 lemon
- zest of 2 oranges
- 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
- 75 ml maple syrup
- 3 vegan filo pastry sheets, thawed
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp shelled pistachios, very finely chopped
Syrup- 180 ml (¾ cup) freshly
squeezed orange juice
(from 2 oranges) - 60 ml (¼ cup) maple syrup
- ½ vanilla bean, seeds
scraped
Method
Syrup
1. Put strained orange juice, maple syrup
and vanilla bean (if using) into a small
saucepan and gently bring to the boil.
Simmer on a very low heat until you get
a thin syrup that coats the back of a
spoon. Set aside to cool.
Baklava Cigars
1. Grind nuts for the filling in a food
processor until you get a coarse crumb.
2. Place the ground nuts in a bowl with salt,
cinnamon, lemon and orange zest. Mix all
the dry ingredients well and add maple
syrup to bind.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 180 ̊C (Gas Mark
4 3 5 5 ̊F) and prepare a baking tin by
brushing it with a small amount of oil.
4. If you want your cigars to look identical,
it’s a good idea to weigh all the filling and
then divide it into 6 equal portions.
5. Open a thawed packet of filo pastry,
gently remove one sheet (filo tears
really easily so you need to be very
gentle with it).
6. Cut the first sheet in half along the widest
edge. Place one half in front of you with
the longer edge perpendicular to you
(with the shorter edge facing you). Put
the other half with the whole sheets,
under a damp towel.
7. Lightly dip a pastry brush in olive oil
and brush the pastry with it. Go easy
on the amount of oil as you don’t
want the cigars to be oily, but make
sure you cover the entire sheet with
light brush strokes.
8. Mould the filling with your hands (it
should be sticking together easily) into
a long sausage. Start rolling the cigar by
folding the bottom margin over the filling,
then fold the sides in (like you would with
a burrito) and finally roll the cigar tightly
around the filling. Apply a little bit more
oil to seal the roll. Place it in a greased
tin, seam down.
9. Repeat the last 3 steps with the remaining
filo sheets.- Place the cigars in the tin snugly. Using
a sharp knife cut each cigar into 2, 3
or even 4 (depending how big you want
them) pieces. Brush the tops with a small
amount of oil and bake for about 25
minutes, or until golden brown. - As soon as the cigars are ready, brush
them with cold syrup (if the syrup isn’t
cold, the cigars will end up soggy).
Sprinkle with finely chopped pistachios. If
you made more than you are able to eat,
just freeze the remainder.
Makes 12-24