Honeyed Fig Baklava

Photo: flickr user avlxyz

Ingredients

100 grams walnuts

100 grams blanched peeled almonds

3 tablespoons rosewater

20 grams unsalted buffer

180 grams caster sugar

3 tablespoons liquid honey

8 fresh green figs (or the purple variety)

1 pkt filo pastry

mascarpane to serve optional

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

Place the nuts with 1 tbsp of rosewater into a processor and blast to a coarse crumb.

Next melt the butter and carefully pour into a clean pan leaving the milk solids behind (which can be discarded).

After that put the sugar honey and 100ml water into a small pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved.

Add the figs and poach for about 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the lot to cool.

Meanwhile brush the inside of a long slim shallow tin with the melted batter.

Cut the sheets of filo pastry to fit the.shape of the tin enough sheets to half fill it.

Lay a sheet in the tin and brush well with the butter then tap it with another sheet and butter again and continue until half the cut sheets are used.

Spread the ground nuts over this layer and continue to cover with buttered sheets of pastry. Cut the layers right through into 6 sections (youcould cut 8 to make slimmer portions it allows for two stillhungry persons wanting seconds but remember to buy two extra figs).

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Then raise the temperature to 220C/ 425F/Gas Mark 7 and bake for about 10 minutes more or until the top looks like faded parchment.

As soon as you take it out of the oven pour over the honey syrup (withholding the figs) and leave on one side to cool to room temperature.

Leave it for a good couple of hours.

Serve each slice with a syrupy fig on top you can split the fiuit open if you wish.