This easy baklava recipe combines traditional baklava with pull-apart bread. You’ll love how easy this baklava bread recipe comes together!
This month, my beloved sister has me drooling all over myself, and feeling, quite frankly, pea green with envy that I didn’t come up with this recipe myself.
I mean, just read on and see what I mean! Turning it over to Em now!
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My husband is working this weekend so I’ve been killing time by playing this game of solitaire where you eat an entire box of Wheat Thins by yourself.
Without any kids to drive me insane, I’m left to my own devices when my husband isn’t around. As a general rule I like to tell myself that I’m going to get some shopping done, do a little baking, clean the apartment, go to the gym, etc., etc., etc. but then I turn on the TV as “background noise” which results in my sitting on the couch all day eating crackers and binging on Netflix.
It’s okay though, as long as I line all the remotes up in a parallel line on the coffee table before my husband gets home, he doesn’t know that I didn’t clean…or I don’t know, maybe he does but chooses his battles wisely.
That’s not the point.
The point is that this weekend, I actually DID something that I told myself I would and that was to bake…leading me to a new problem: how many calories does it burn to eat an entire loaf of this Bakla-bread I made?
The bigger problem is that this recipe has effectively turned me into a monster. You know how people eat with their eyes first? Well, I sort of visually assaulted this bread before I ate it and it was really inappropriate.
Where that’s concerned though, I think most breads ask for the abuse and I’m just the kind of girl who isn’t afraid to make it uncomfortable.
Ultimately, this bread came out the victor because while I won the battle of eating the entire loaf, the bread won the war of making me want to die for having done so. As I recovered on the couch, my husband walked in to find a messy kitchen, an apartment that smelled like heaven and nothing for him to eat.
Adding insult to injury, I was washing my dessert bread down with wine and binge-watching Netflix. (Sorry fellas, I’m taken!)
Want more? Try some of Em’s other great creations!
- 3 tablespoons warm water (105-115F)
- 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ⅓ cup milk
- 3 cups flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Cup sugar
- 2 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ Cup pistachios, chopped
- ½ Cup walnuts, chopped
- ¼ Cup almonds, sliced
- Zest of ¼ lemon
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ Cup butter, melted
- ½ Cup honey
- ½ Cup water
- Pinch of salt
- Activate the Yeast: in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine water, yeast, and sugar. Stir gently and briefly. Let the mixture stand until foamy (about 5 minutes).
- Make the Dough: In a small saucepan, combine the butter and milk. Place over medium heat and cook until butter is just melted. Remove from heat and let cool to approx. 120 degrees.
- In a large bowl, whisk together 2 Cups of flour, the sugar and salt. Pour dry mixture into activated yeast. Add milk mixture, eggs, and vanilla. Stir together on low for about 2 minutes, then increast speed to medium and mix until everything is well incorporated (the eggs tend to hold the process up, just keep mixing, they’ll join in eventually). Add the remaining cup of flour and little at a time. After flour is incorporated, knead for about 3 minutes.
- Place the dough in a large, greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest in a warm place until dough has doubled (approx. 45 minutes). While dough is resting, prep the filling and honey syrup.
- Filling: In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
- In the bowl of a food processor, combine all the nuts, lemon zest, and salt and process until nuts are ground fine. Add the vanilla extract and process until the mixture forms large, moist clumps. Set the mixture aside.
- Honey Syrup: In a small saucepan, combine the honey, water, and salt. Bring to a boil then reduce to a medium-low heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until the mixture reduces by ⅓. Let syrup cool slightly then transfer to a jar or bowl to cool further.
- When the dough is raised, turn it out onto a floured surface, gently flatten it with your fingers. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin to approx. 20 x 12 inches. Cover dough with the melted butter, sprinkle with the sugar/cinnamon mixture, crumble the nut mixture as evenly as possible.
- Cut the dough vertically into six even strips, stack the strips on top of one another. Cut the stacked strips into 6 square (ish) pieces and layer them, standing upright, in a loaf pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes (until dough is puffed and fills the pan).
- Preheat oven to 350. Bake 30-40 minutes or until the top of the bread is deep, golden brown. Allow bread to cool in pan about 20 minutes. Drizzle honey syrup over the top and serve.
