I LOVE baklava and came across a recipe in an old Vogue Entertaining Magazine not too long ago which has inspired me to make a naughty warming brekkie filo dish. (but by all means feel free to eat it with ice cream for dessert too!)
The inspiring recipe was names 'Sardinian Cheese & Honey Pastries' the picture looked divine, but the recipe read poorly... ricotta and sultanas mixed with lemon rind, stuffed into frozen puff pastry sheets and deep fried.
The deep frying turned me off..
I was surprised the recipe didn't call for filo and couldn't stop thinking about how delicious it would be to have the feathery light and fine filo pastry with the warm spiced ricotta, and how the sticky sweetness of baklava honey/sugar syrupy pastry would work so well. well my dreaming went on and i thought about how much more i like figs than i like sultanas.... and eventually i created it.
My first attempt i mimicked the baklava recipes and poured the honey syrup over the filo triangles after baking them to a satisfactory crispiness, i found them to become too soggy and so have adapted the recipe, brushing the syrup over the triangles again and again until i am happy with the amount of coating and crispiness.
It is a naughty breakfast, i cant ignore it. But on a weekend morning like it is this time of year here in Sydney...when i am sitting in the sun, (which is giving me less than enough warmth than i would like) a nice cup of milky sweet earl grey tea and a steamy-hot, crispy-sticky, sweet filo triangle full of warm fig and cinnamon scents is perfect to warm me up!
Here is the recipe, i hope you enjoy.
Honey, Fig and Ricotta Filo
Ingredients
* 375g Ricotta (drained in a sieve for 20mins)
*100g Figs (chopped and soaked for 5mins in boiling water and then drained)
* grated rind of 1 lemon
* Juice of 1 lemon
* 2tspn cinnamon
* 5tbsn rapadura
* 1/2 packet of filo pastry
* 4tbsn water
* 1 cinnamon stick
* 150g butter (approx)
Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Mix ricotta, figs, lemon zest, cinnamon & 2tbsn rapadura together in a bowl
melt butter and brush butter over a sheet of filo pastry, repeat with 3 more sheets of pastry laying the pastry sheets on top of one another. Cut the pile of pastry sheets in half and spoon about 2 or 3 heaped tablespoons of ricotta mix in a triangle shape into the corner of each of the piles of filo.
Fold over and over to create a triangle filo pillow, wiping butter over the pastry each time you fold it. You want to create a nice neat sealed filo triangle.
Repeat the process until you have used all of the ricotta.
Place a wire baking rack onto a baking tray. Cover with a piece of baking paper.Place the filo pastries onto the baking paper and bake in oven for 20mins (or until nicely browned and crunchy)
While they are baking heat the honey, the water, the lemon juice, and the cinnamon stick over a low heat until slightly thickened. keep warm.
Once the filo are cooked remove the baking paper from under the pastries and use a pastry brush to wipe the honey syrup over the pastries coast after coast until you achieve a still crispy but syrupy coating on top.
Eat immediately, or if saving for later, re-heat very gently in the oven to ensure you don't burn the sugar coating.
Enjoy!
xx BA
