Baklava circles Nest

 Ingredients 

Nuts 

• ½ cup pecan nuts 
• 1/2 cup of roasted Almonds
• ½ cup shelled pistachios
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground cloves

Assembly

¾ cup unsalted butter, melted

1 1 lb pkg (16 sheets) phyllo pastry, thawed

Powdered cinnamon and cloves 

Syrup

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup honey

1 cup water

1/2 lemon, cut in half

1 cinnamon stick

4 whole cloves

Method

• First up it's good to  prepare the syrup so it can cool down always pore cooled Syrup on to hot pastry. It will help to stay crispy 

Syrup

1. For the syrup, bring the sugar, honey, water, lemon (squeeze the lemon juice into the pan and drop the lemon halves in), cinnamon stick and whole cloves up to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer this for 5 minutes, stirring to make sure the sugar has dissolved and then set aside to cool.

2. Hot from the oven, spoon the cooled  syrup over the hot baklavas, using a brush to fill in any gaps. Let the baklavas cool to room temperature on a rack before enjoying.

3. The baklavas can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Nuts

1. For the nuts, pulse the pican and pistachios with the sugar, cinnamon and cloves in a food processor until evenly chopped (but not finely ground). Set aside.

Assembly

1. To assemble, preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and brush a 9-x-13-inch (23-x-33 cm) baking pan with some of the melted butter. Cut all the phyllo pastry sheets in half and stack one half on top of the other – cover the stack with a piece of plastic wrap topped by a damp tea towel (this will prevent it from drying out). Lay out a sheet of phyllo pastry and brush it lightly with butter. Top this with a small line of the nuts in a line and brush it lightly with butter. Using a long-handled wooden spoon or piece of doweling, place the spoon handle along the short end of the pastry and roll up the pastry over the spoon (but not too tightly). Scrunch the phyllo down the spoon to pull it off and also “ruffle” the pastry at the same time. Shape this into a small circle and place it in the buttered baking pan and repeat with the remaining pastry (15 baklavas fit into the pan nicely. Brush the tops of the baklavas with all the remaining butter.

2. Place a generous spoonful of the nut filling into the centre of each baklava circle and press in as much as you can and sprinkle some melted butter all over it. Bake the baklavas for about 30 minutes, until a rich golden brown. Then pore the cooled syrup all over as soon as they are out of the oven. When cooled place some chopped pistachio in the middle of each circle for decoration and enjoy.