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caramel chocolate turtle baklava

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Ingredients

for the baklava:

  • Butter for greasing the pan
  • 1 heaping cup milk chocolate chips for the filling (170g)
  • 16 ounces pecans (454g)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (1g)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (2.5g)
  • 16 oz filo dough sheets (454g), thawed at room temperature for 4 hours
  • 6.25 ounces hot melted clarified butter (177 grams, or 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons by volume)*

for the caramel syrup:

  • 2 1/2 cups sugar (500g)
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup water (170g)
  • 1 1/2 cups whipping cream (350g)

for the topping:

  • 2/3 cup milk chocolate chips for the topping (100g)

Instructions

  1. Bake the baklava: Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C convection**, and grease a rimmed sheet pan.
  2. Place the chocolate chips in a food processor and blend until they’re very finely chopped (or chop by hand). Add the pecans, cinnamon, and salt, and pulse a few times, until they’re very finely chopped/coarsely ground (but careful not to over-process them into pecan butter!)
  3. Make sure you have all your ingredients (including the clarified butter) ready before you open the filo dough. Place half of the filo dough on the sheet pan, spread the pecan mixture evenly over it, and place the rest of the filo dough on top of the pecan mixture.
  4. Cut the baklava into diamonds by slicing straight across in the short direction, then diagonally (see photos in my original baklava post). It’s best to work with a very sharp knife so that you don’t tear, stretch, or dishevel the filo. It’s alright if a few of the pieces go a little awry, but you want everything to stay pretty lined up.
  5. Slowly and evenly drizzle the hot clarified butter over the sliced baklava.
  6. Bake for about 25 minutes, until it has lightly browned. Make the caramel (below) while you wait. Make sure the caramel is hot right as the baklava comes out of the oven, and rewarm if necessary.***
  7. Make the caramel syrup: First, get all your ingredients ready, because things will move very quickly.
  8. Place the sugar and salt in a large saucepan with lots of room to prevent bubbling over. Pour the water down the sides of the saucepan, to make sure that none of the sugar is stuck to the sides (this will prevent crystallization****). Turn the heat to high, and bring to a boil without stirring.
  9. Once it comes to a boil, give it a gentle stir with a wooden spoon to help it circulate (but do not let it slosh around, or your caramel might crystalize), and then do not stir it again. The sugar will dissolve after a couple minutes. Once the bubbles become tighter and smaller (after about 5 to 10 minutes), keep a close eye on it—it will start to turn amber, and will quickly progress to clear brown. You can decide how dark you’d like it to be—I like to wait for it to get a tiny bit smokey.
  10. As soon as the syrup caramelizes to your liking, remove from heat and slowly pour in the heavy cream while stirring. Watch out, because it will bubble violently, and make sure your pot has plenty of room so it doesn’t bubble over. Once all the cream is added, keep carefully stirring the mixture, which will continue boiling dramatically. After a minute or so of stirring, everything will come together a little, and it will calm down.
  11. Set it back over medium heat, and cook stirring constantly for about 2 minutes, just until the caramel comes together and then thickens very slightly (adjust the heat to prevent boiling over). Do not let it continuously boil or it will become too thick.
  12. As soon as the baklava comes out of the oven, slowly pour the hot caramel sauce over the surface. If the pan is wider than the filo, some of the caramel will pool at the sides. Simply scoop it up with a small spoon and drizzle back over the top.
  13. Let it sit until it comes to room temperature, at least 2 hours, and then temper the 2/3 cup (100g) chocolate. Drizzle the chocolate over the room temperature baklava. Wait until the chocolate hardens. Cut through the lines you made before baking, and then serve. Store in the refrigerator for up to 6 days, or in the freezer for months. It’s even better the next day.

Notes

* Clarified butter is really easy to make, and I’ve got a video and recipe here. This amount of clarified butter comes from about 8 ounces / 227 grams sweet cream butter (which is conveniently the amount in my clarified butter recipe).

** If you don’t have convection, no worries—you might need to slightly increase the temperature and/or bake it for slightly longer. If your convection fan is particularly strong, you might want to bake without convection, otherwise the pieces of filo might go flying. I’ve only had this problem baking in commercial kitchens, and most home ovens won’t actually blow things around.

*** The syrup will be much more pourable when hot, and it will more easily soak through the layers of filo. Usually, chilled or room temperature syrup is poured over baklava, but this caramel works better when warm (because the fat and protein from the cream will make it set up too much at room temperature).

**** Crystallization happens when grains of sugar fall into a concentrated sugar solution. If a grain of sugar sticks to the side of the pan in the beginning, and then finds its way back into the syrup halfway through boiling, it will set off a crazy chain reaction where the whole thing will seize up and get grainy. If you follow these instructions, you should be fine, but you can also brush the sides of the pot down with water while it boils if you want to be totally cautious (I don’t like doing this, because it makes it take longer to boil off, and I’ve never had a problem with crystallization with the above method).

Find it online: https://cardamomandtea.com/561/turtle-baklava/