Baklava rolls

I jumped to the opportunity last week, to make some Baklava for a friend of mine. Baklava is one of my ultimate favourite things to eat - layers of flaky phyllo pastry, filled with cinnamon-spiced nuts and sweetened with honey.  Originally it should be made in a large dish and then cut into diamonds or triangles, but I like to make little rolls, seeing that it is easier to eat and I also add a bit of cream the the nuts to make a filling rather than just sprinkling the layers with chopped nuts.  Two key ingredients are pistachios and honey, but it is a bit of a challenge to find unsalted pistachios here, so I use a combination of other nuts.  I also add a few very fragrant spices when making the syrup.  I'm starting to wonder now whether one can still call it Baklava after all my additions, but I'm sure you will love the result!

1 x 500g packet phyllo pastry (try to find pastry that has never been frozen)

250g butter, melted

Filling:

400g nuts, finely chopped (pistachios, almonds, pecan nuts, macadamia nuts)

100g castor sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

75ml cream

Syrup:

2 1/2 cups of sugar

1/4 cup of honey

1 1/2 cup of water

 juice of half a lemon

a 2 cm chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

2 stick of cinnamon

half a vanilla pod

1 whole star anise

2 cloves

Combine all the filling ingredients.  Combine all the ingredients for the syrup in a saucepan and heat slowly until the sugar is completely dissolved, then bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. 

Use one sheet of pastry at a time and keep the remainder covered. Place the sheet of pastry in front of you, shorter side down.  Using a pastry brush, brush the lower half of the sheet with melted butter, then fold the unbuttered half onto the buttered half.  Now cut the pastry into three equal strips from top to bottom.  Place a tablespoon of filling onto each strip, 2cm from the bottom.  Fold the end of the pastry over the filling.  Then make two folds, +/- 1.5 cm wide, on each side of the strips, enclosing the filling at the end.  Now, roll up the length of the roll, pasting the end with a bit of melted butter.  Place the rolls into a greased baking tray, deep enough to later accommodate the syrup.  From one packet of pastry, one normally gets 16 sheets of pastry.  The filling will be enough to make 16 x 3 rolls.

To bake, preheat the oven to 180 degrees.  Brush each roll with melted butter and bake for 20 minutes, until golden.  Remove from the oven and spoon over half the syrup.  Wait 20 minutes, then turn over each roll and spoon over the remainder of the syrup.  Cool before serving.