Traditional Greek Dessert – Saragli
We chat with the head chef at Nostos restaurant in Hove, Alexandros Tzimos, as he shows us how to make their traditional Greek dessert, Saragli or Baklava.
This Greek dessert comes from Alexandros’ home town and is easy to recreate at home with no special equipment!
Pop into Nostos and try it yourself.
Saragli is a lovely combination of crunchy phyllo sheets, sweet syrup, spices, nuts and lots of butter! If you love a sweet treat, this dessert will not let you down!
Ingredients
For the syrup:
- 500g.granulated sugar
- 350g water
- 2 small sticks of cinnamon
- 50g glucose
- 6 cloves
- 1 star anise
- Peel of 1 lemon
- 1 tbs lemon juice
For the Saragli:
- 400g butter or margarine (vegan option)
- 100g walnuts
- 100g pistachios
- 100g almonds
- 2tsp cinnamon
- 1tsp ground cloves
- 1kg phyllo pastry sheets
Greek Dessert Method
For the syrup
- In a pot, add the sugar, water, cinnamon stick, glucose syrup, cloves and lemon rind.
- Place pot over medium heat.
- In about 2-3 minutes, as soon as the sugar melts, remove pot from heat.
- Add the lemon juice, stir and set aside to cool.
For the Greek Dessert Saragli:
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
- In a food processor or using a mortar and pestle, grind the walnuts, almonds, cinnamon and cloves together. You don’t want to finely grind them but you don’t want to have large pieces because they will rip through the phyllo sheets.
- Transfer the filling to a bowl and transfer the melted butter to a separate bowl.
- Preheat the oven to 160* C (320* F) Fan.
- Spread out the phyllo sheets on a clean work surface.
- Drizzle with melted butter, making sure not to let the brush directly touch the phyllo.
- Cover with another sheet of phyllo and drizzle with butter.
- Spread the filling over the entire surface.
- Place two wooden sticks in the middle of the phyllo and roll the smaller side towards the middle, leaving an empty space at the edge.
- Do not roll too tight and gently press the ends together towards the middle with your hands, creating folds in the phyllo and remove the sticks.
- Brush a 30×40 cm baking pan with butter and add the Saragli.
- Drizzle with butter immediately and repeat the same process until the baking pan is full of Saragli rolls.
- When the pan is full, drizzle any leftover butter over the Saragli rolls.
- Cut the Saragli into strips before baking to avoid destroying the phyllo sheets.
- Bake for 70-90 minutes.
- When ready, remove from the oven and immediately pour the cool syrup over the scorching hot Saragli rolls.
- Allow them to soak up the syrup for 30 minutes.
- Sprinkle with ground pistachio nuts and serve.
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