Red Folder Recipe- Baklava

I think I have found it, the ultimate Baklava recipe

Where I used to live in London there was a thriving greek community and from a corner shop, the owners’ mum would sell tiny, aromatic and sweet, diamond filo pastry mouthfuls of heaven, straight from the baking tin.  I discovered later that the men used to sit at the back drinking black coffee and smoking waiting for the tray to come out of the oven as eagerly as I did.  I used to beg for the recipe and she would always shake her head no and say that if she told me I would not buy from her!  Of course, I know how to make Baklava but I could never capture that taste from London E17.

If I see Baklava in a cafe I will always try a piece, I do this with lemon tarts too, but that is another recipe.  Then a friend of a friend of a friend said, “try this”, and handed me a photocopy of a handwritten  list of ingredients and instructions. It is the closest thing I have made so far, so I popped it in the red folder and marked it E17 Baklava.  It is  toothache-sweet, and uses more sugar than I would use in three months, so I usually make a hybrid of the school cookbook version and the E17.  I leave you both here.  Be warned cut into small pieces, but you will keep going back to the tin. Continue reading “The Red Folder” →