Phyllo dough, chopped nuts like pistachios, and plenty of honey are some of the core ingredients in baklava, a popular dessert in countries like Greece and Italy. What brings all of those ingredients together is butter, a rather common ingredient in an array of desserts. There’s salted, unsalted, and even plant-based butter at grocery stores, but none of those are the ideal option for homemade baklava. To make the flaky, sticky treat, clarified butter should be your go-to choice.
Clarified butter, not to be confused with ghee despite the similarities between the two, is when the spread is cooked to remove the milk solids and water. Because the dairy component is removed from clarified butter, it can reach a higher smoke point and helps foods, like the phyllo dough layers in baklava, reach ultimate crispiness. Clarified butter will also give your baklava a richer flavor. If you indulge in baklava in Greece, Turkey, or at your local bakery, the dish was most likely made with clarified butter for those reasons.
Essential tips for making homemade baklava with clarified butter like a pastry chef
Whether you use regular or clarified butter, it must be melted for baklava. That means that it should be a one-to-one swap for recipes that use butter instead of the clarified version, which makes it easy. However, if you want to make clarified butter, start with more so you have enough for the baklava. Give it a try with our sweet and sticky baklava recipe that didn’t originally use it. Another option is to upgrade our pistachio and orange baklava recipe with clarified butter to achieve those golden-brown, crispy layers. For reference, other recipes that turn out 24 servings use about one and a half cups of clarified butter. And if you don’t have access to clarified butter or time to make it, melted unsalted butter will still work.
When the butter is melted, either on the stovetop or in the microwave, it’s time to get cooking. The butter is used between each layer of phyllo dough to ensure it’s crispy throughout the dish. Add the clarified butter by using a pastry or basting brush to evenly coat each layer before you add the next piece of phyllo dough. You won’t use the butter on top of the finished product, because there’s a flavorful syrup that is used instead. Then, to really perfect the dessert, you can follow some of the other tips for baking the best baklava, such as including a garnish of crushed pistachios.
