Starting this one off by saying I'm only sharing my version of this recipe to save you some math. I have Frankensteined together The Loopy Whisk's mind-blowing solution for making gluten-free phyllo with Cleobuttera's gorgeous pistachio baklava; my contribution is simply the halving of the baklava recipe so that it will fit into a loaf tin. (And the substitution of vanilla for orange blossom water but that’s just because I live in a small town and couldn’t find orange blossom water in time.)
INGREDIENTS
Phyllo (from The Loopy Whisk)
5 g (1 tbsp ) psyllium husk (if using powdered psyllium husk, use 4g.)
150 g (½ cup + 2 tbsp) lukewarm water
200 g (1 ⅔ cups) xanthan-gum-containing plain gluten free flour blend, plus extra for flouring the surface
15 g (4 tsp) granulated sugar
4 g (1 ½ tsp) xanthan gum (if your gluten free flour doesn't contain xanthan gum, up the amount to 5g or 2 tsp.)
2 g (½ tsp) salt
30 g (¼ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
Sugar syrup (adapted from Cleobuttera)
175g (7/8 cup) sugar
3/8 cup water
A squeeze of lemon
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Nut filling (adapted from Cleobuttera)
170g (1 1/2 cup) shelled, raw, unsalted pistachios (reserve a bit for garnish)
About 130g (5/8 cup or so) clarified unsalted butter (if clarifying yourself, starting with a quarter cup more)
DIRECTIONS
Honestly for the phyllo you should head over to The Loopy Whisk and follow her step-by-step instructions. The basic idea is to make a gel out of the psyllium husk with a bit of water and then go from there, but it's complicated and you'll never find a better explanation of how to do it than to follow hers. My one tip: do follow the direction to roll the dough out into three sheets. This'll help later for this particular recipe.
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
Once you've got your phyllo, it's time to clarify some butter. You'll need a saucepan, a small sieve to skim the butter, and a bowl. Put the butter in the saucepan on low; when it melts, it'll separate into milk solids on the bottom, clarified butter in the middle, and some foam on top. Turn the heat off. Use the sieve to skim the foam (AKA the butter's pond scum) off the top. Then slowly and gently pour the clarified butter into the bowl, being careful not to get the milk solids at the bottom. (No one will die if a tad creeps in there. The clarified butter's just going to do better for the length of time you need it to be in the oven—won't burn!). Note: I suggest watching a video on clarifying butter if you've never done it before.
Next, make the sugar syrup. Put the sugar, water, lemon and salt into a pot over medium heat. Stir as it's heating, just to make sure the sugar dissolves. Allow it to come to a gentle boil. It's pretty easy to crystallize sugar at this point. Two tips to avoid that: 1) stop stirring the very second the sugar is dissolved; 2) keep a cup of water and a pastry brush beside the stove and paint the edges of the pot gently with water to keep the sugar from creeping stickily up the sides. You just need your sugar syrup to boil gently for about a minute before you take it off the heat and pour it into a liquid cup measure. Set it aside and allow it to cool to room temp.
Assembly: take a loaf tin (mine is 9" x 5"). You're going to use one third of your phyllo for the bottom of the baklava, one third for the middle portion with the nuts, and one third for the top. Reserve your prettiest most put-together sheets for the top of the baklava.
Brush the bottom of the tin with clarified butter. Cut a piece of phyllo to fit the tin. Place on top of the butter, and then brush with butter. Repeat until you've used 1/3 of your phyllo dough.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup of your pistachios over your phyllo layers. Place one piece of phyllo on top. Brush with butter. Repeat twice, until you've used the rest of your nuts, and the second third of your phyllo dough.
Using the final third of your phyllo: place a layer of phyllo down, brush with butter, repeat until you have no more phyllo. Again: save your prettiest most intact sheets for this part, especially the top layer. Don't brush the top layer with butter quite yet!
Cut your diamonds. I did this by trisecting the loaf pan lengthwise—that is, two cuts that went the 9" length of the tin. Then I cut diagonally to get my diamonds. You'll have some irregular shapes at the top and bottom; these you can treat as your test bites or, if you have a tiny child in your home, your child-size pieces.
Brush the sliced baklava with butter.
Bake the baklava for 1.5 hours at 300 degrees.
When the baklava comes out of the oven, pour most of the sugar syrup through the cracks and drizzle some on top (it makes a beautiful sizzling sound when it hits the loaf tin!). Sprinkle some reserved pistachios in little mounds at the centre of each diamond.
Allow the syrup to soak in for a few hours, or overnight; you can cover the tin with some tinfoil and just let it hang out on the counter.
Serve with vanilla ice cream, crunch happily.
