Light Rolled Baklava

📝 Ingredients

• 8 brik pastry sheets
• 100 g walnut halves
• 80 g whole almonds
• 20 g caster sugar + 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 30 g unsalted butter
• 80 g honey
• 60 ml water
• ½ lemon (for 1 tbsp juice)
• 1 tbsp orange blossom water

🍴 Utensils

• Small saucepan
• Knife and cutting board
• 2 bowls
• Pastry brush
• Baking tray and baking paper
• Deep dish

📖 Steps

1. Start with the syrup so it has time to cool: in the small pan, bring the honey, water and juice of the half lemon to the boil over a medium heat, then simmer for 3 minutes. Off the heat, add the orange blossom water and leave to cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (conventional) and line the baking tray with baking paper. Melt the butter in a bowl for 30 seconds in the microwave and keep it close at hand with the pastry brush.
3. Roughly chop the walnuts and almonds with a knife into lentil-sized pieces: not to a powder, or the filling will turn pasty. Mix them in the second bowl with the sugar and cinnamon.
4. Take out the brick sheets one at a time, leaving the others in their packet so they don't dry out, and cut each one in half to make 2 half-moons. Brush a half-moon with a very thin layer of butter: the brush should barely touch it.
5. Fold the rounded side towards the centre to make a rectangle, spoon a good tablespoon of filling (about 12 g) in a line along the cut edge, fold the sides in and roll up tightly. Place the cigar on the tray, seam-side down.
6. Repeat to make 16 cigars, then lightly brush their tops with the rest of the butter. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden and crisp; keep an eye on them in the last few minutes, as brick pastry browns very quickly.
7. As soon as they come out of the oven, arrange the hot cigars in the deep dish and pour over the cold syrup, turning them to coat well. This hot-cold contrast lets the syrup soak in without making the pastry soggy. Leave to soak for 15 minutes.
8. Serve 2 cigars per person, at room temperature, with a little of the syrup left in the bottom of the dish. They keep for 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature: the fridge makes them soft.