Yesterday I started out wanting to make traditional Baklava and ended up making cookies! I saw a picture in a magazine where filo dough was cut and placed in mini muffin tins then filled with a quiche mixture. My Baklava Cookies evolved from that idea, and I absolutely love them.
I started by putting pecans, bread crumbs, sugar, honey and spices in a food processor and whizzing it all up. It looked a bit dry, so I drizzled in a bit more honey and mixed it well.
Then I layered filo sheets with melted butter and cut them into small enough pieces to fit into mini muffin tins. Once I put them in the tins, I placed a teaspoon of the nut mixture in each one, added one chocolate chunk, and then folded the filo sheets over and pressed down.
I brushed each with melted butter and baked them into wonderful little balls of nuttiness.
Baklava Cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups pecans
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon anise extract
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 tablespoons honey
12 Nestle chocolate chunks
1/2 stick melted butter
12 sheets filo dough
Cooking Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Whizz together in a food processor the pecans, bread crumbs, brown sugar, cinnamon, anise extract, almond extract and honey.
Brush a sheet of filo with melted butter, top it with another filo sheet, brush that sheet with melted butter, and continue the process until you have a stack of 6 sheets.
Slice the sheets into squares to fit into the muffin tins.
Repeat this process in order to fill a second muffin tin.
Place 1 teaspoon of the nut mixture into each muffin and top with one chocolate chunk.
Fold the filo over each muffin form and place the muffin tins in the oven to bake for 20 minutes until they are golden brown.
This recipe makes 24 Baklava Cookies and takes 20 minutes to bake.
Hillary Davis is the author of French Comfort Food, Cuisine Niçoise, and A Million A Minute. She is presently at work on her next cookbook. You can follow her food adventures in France and around the world on her blog Marché Dimanche.