It is cold and rainy outside … real November weather! We often feel like the little mouse Frederick (children’s book by Leo Lionni) and we like to think back to the summer, the sun, the holidays and all the delicious things we ate back then! Inspired by our dreams, we bake baklava today. And since we use regional products for it, it becomes a Styrian Balkava!

Yes, it is a sweet and you should snack in moderation. But in the baklava are plenty of nuts or here in our Styrian baklava pumpkin seeds. And all nuts and seeds are rich in spermidine :-)!

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Ingredients (for 4 persons)

• 1/2 pack of filo pastry (equivalent to 6 leaves)
• 100 ml of neutral vegetable oil
• 65 g butter
• 100 g pumpkin seeds natural
• 30 g apple chips
• 80 g brown sugar
• 40 g of regional honey
• 200 ml of water
• Juice of a 1/2 lemon

in addition:

• Rolling pin (about 60 cm long wooden stick with 2 cm diameter)
• Oven pan (not made of glass or ceramics!) With a width of about 25 – 40 cm

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Preparation (for 4 persons)

To roll up the baklava you need a Turkish rolling pin. This is a wooden stick with 2 cm diameter and about 60 cm in length. We sawed a broom handle (of course from a new broom), worked great!

First melt the butter and mix with the oil. Put the pumpkin seeds and apple chips in a kitchen crusher and chop them. Now lay the filo pastry with the narrow side facing you and roll the first 4 cm of the dough around the rolling pin. We do this so that the wood remains free of oil, because this makes it easier to push the pastry role together later.

Brush the top filo pastry leaf with the butter-oil mixture and sprinkle the lower 2/3 of it with the pumpkin seed apple chip mixture (about 1/8 of the mixture). Now the sprinkled filo pastry leaf around the pin, but not too tight. The dough roll should lie loosely on the rolling pin. With both hands, enclose and push together the outermost part of the roll (left and right). Then push the pushed roll down from the rolling pin directly into the baking pan. The rollers should be roughly evenly „wavy“. Cut the baklava rolls with a sharp knife so that each roll is divided into 4 rolls (about 5 cm long). and spread with the remaining butter-oil mixture.

Back it at (circulating air) 180 ° C in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the baklava is golden brown. 15 minutes before the baklava comes out of the oven, start making the syrup. Simmer water with sugar and lemon juice for about 15 minutes, remove from heat and stir in the honey. Small note: we consciously use less sugar syrup than the one of the „real“ Baklavas. Take the golden balva out of the oven and directly pour the -still hot- syrup over it. A wonderful hiss and crackle is to be heard here! (Watch out: Glas or ceramic pans would break !) Finally sprinkle with the remaining pumpkin seed apple chips mixture. Ready to enjoy! Best hot and for sure on the same day.

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Also these wonderful photos were created in our cooperation with Steirerkraft :-), thank you!