Possibly the perfect dessert for a dinner party, Mini Baklava Cups are:
- Easy to prepare
- Make-ahead
- Filled with healthy nuts and spices
- Incredibly delicious
- Small bites: just the right size portion
We say, “There’s always room for dessert!” Because sometimes we just want a small bite of something sweet after dinner, even if we feel full after a heavy meal. We feel deprived without just a little sweet treat of dessert. But if we follow a big meal with, say, a big slice of apple pie with ice cream, we might enjoy it in the moment but then we feel overstuffed and uncomfortable afterwards. In fact, have trouble sleeping if I eat that much.
The national restaurant chain Seasons 52 has the right idea with their signature “Mini-Indulgences” desserts, which are just a few bites of something delicious like cheesecake or key lime pie or chocolate cake and max out around 250 calories each. Compare that to a standard size piece of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, which clocks in at over 700 calories! At home, these mini baklava cups are just the right solution. Small bites of deliciousness. Have one, maybe two and you’ll feel happy and satisfied, but not overly full.
About Baklava...
Mini baklava cups are similar in flavor to the wonderful layered phyllo desserts of Greece, Turkey and other countries of the Levant region. Think of them as “deconstructed baklava.” But they are so much easier to make. In Greece, for example, baklava is traditionally made with 33 phyllo dough layers, each layer representing a year in the life of Jesus. Well, that is very labor intensive, and requires brushing melted butter on each of those 33 layers of phyllo and stuffing each layer with the sweet nut filling. By contrast, these mini baklava cups take advantage of commercially-available mini phyllo shells, which you brush one time with melted butter and stuff with the filling.
This recipe is an adaptation of one originally published in Fine Cooking Magazine in 2017. Mini baklava cups would be a perfect end to a Levant-themed dinner that includes Middle Eastern Chicken - Glazed with Pomegranate Molasses or Za’atar Chicken with Lemon-Parsley Salad.
Ingredients for Mini Baklava Cups
The key to making this mini baklava cups recipe so easy is the Athens Mini Phyllo Shells, available in many grocery stores and online here.
Mini baklava cups are subtly flavored with cinnamon, cardamom and orange zest. I buy the highest quality spices that I can find. Burlap and Barrel sources the finest, small-batch sustainable spices that I have ever used in my cooking. Their Cloud Forest Cardamom has a wonderful soft, sweet flavor. And they offer a number of different cinnamon products. Burlap and Barrel's Cinnamon Verum (aka Ceylon or "true" cinnamon) is a savory cinnamon from Zanzibar that is fantastic in meat dishes, tomato sauces and chilis. For sweet desserts like this one, I go with their intensely spicy Vietnamese Royal Cinnamon.
- pistachios
- cinnamon
- cardamom
- cloves
- sea salt
- black pepper
- honey
- orange zest
- mini phyllo shells
- butter
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions for Mini Baklava Cups
Place the roasted pistachios, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, salt and black pepper into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Place the mixture in a small bowl.
Combine the honey, orange zest, cinnamon stick and ¼ cup of water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat. Then, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the cinnamon stick and let cool for 10 minutes.
Stir 2 tablespoons of the honey mixture into the nut mixture until well combined.
Line a small cookie sheet with parchment and crisp the phyllo shells in the oven according to package instructions. When cool, brush the insides of the shells with melted butter.
Divide the pistachio mixture evenly in the phyllo cups.
Drizzle the honey mixture into the phyllo cups. If desired, top each pastry with a bright green, raw pistachio. At this point, I like to put the pastries on a cooling rack set over the baking sheet, to let any excess honey syrup drip off. Let the baklava cups sit for 30 minutes to 4 hours before serving. This allows the flavors to develop.
Hint: If you choose to top the mini baklava cups with a raw pistachio, but your pistachios still have their skins, boil the pistachios in water for 5 minutes. Then rub them in a clean kitchen towel to remove the skins and expose the gorgeous green nut.
Variations
- Persian - Substitute a teaspoon of rose water for the orange zest.
- Greek - Use roasted sliced almonds instead of pistachios.
- Turkish - Use roasted hazelnuts with the skins rubbed off instead of pistachios.
Storage
In the unlikely event that you have any mini baklava cups left after your dinner party, store them covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Top tip
This is a great make-ahead recipe for a dinner party. Count back 4 hours from when you plan to serve the mini baklava cups and make them then. That's one less thing you have to stress about while you prepare for your guests' arrival. Arrange them on a pretty serving platter or cutting board and let your guests admire and look forward to them!
FAQ
The main ingredients in Athens Mini Fillo Cups are enriched wheat flour, water, cornstarch, canola oil and salt. Light, flaky layers of phyllo dough are formed into mini pastry cups, then baked. These convenient cups can then be filled with savory or sweet ingredients, like these mini baklava cups.
When you make mini baklava cups, inevitably some of the honey syrup will pool around the phyllo shells. To prevent them from getting soggy before I serve them, I place them on a baking rack set over a cookie sheet so that any excess syrup can drip off. If you line the cookie sheet with parchment or aluminum foil, clean-up is a breeze.
Baklava filling ingredients vary by country and region. For example, in Turkey, baklava can be made with pistachios, walnuts or almonds. But in the Black Sea region, hazelnuts are the preferred filling. Persians enjoy a drier, lighter version of baklava made from chopped almonds and pistachios and flavored with rose water. Class Greek baklava uses walnuts and lots of the honey syrup, making it wetter and sweeter than other versions.
Recipe
Mini Baklava Cups
Ingredients
- ½ cup roasted, salted pistachios
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch ground cardamom
- pinch ground cloves
- ½ cup honey
- ½ teaspoon grated orange zest
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 box mini phyllo shells
- 1 tablespoon butter, unsalted
- 15 raw pistachios, (optional)
Instructions
- Place the roasted pistachios, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, salt and black pepper into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Place the mixture in a small bowl.
- Combine the honey, orange zest, cinnamon stick and ¼ cup of water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat. Then, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the cinnamon stick and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Stir 2 tablespoons of the honey mixture into the nut mixture until well combined.
- Line a small cookie sheet with parchment and crisp the phyllo shells in the oven according to package instructions. When cool, brush the insides of the shells with melted butter.
- Divide the pistachio mixture evenly in the phyllo cups.
- Drizzle the honey mixture into the phyllo cups. If desired, top each pastry with a bright green, raw pistachio. At this point, I like to put the pastries on a cooling rack set over the baking sheet, to let any excess honey syrup drip off. Let the baklava cups sit for 30 minutes to 4 hours before serving. This allows the flavors to develop.
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