Cooking baklava with Mirela of Papare The Beauty of Small Things for New Year’s Eve

Mirela Andoni, is a TV Chef and TV presenter who lives in Tirana with her husband and their two daughters. In her Instagram page Papare the Beauty of Small Things (@papare_thebeautyofsmallthings) she shares recipes and secrets of the extraordinary culinary heritage of Albania focusing on tradition and contemporary influences. We asked Mirela to share with us her recipe, Baklava a traditional layered pastry widely enjoyed across the Balkans, the Middle East, and parts of the Eastern Mediterranean, with deep roots in Ottoman culinary heritage. In Albania, baklava holds a special cultural significance and is most commonly prepared for major celebrations, especially New Year’s Eve, when it symbolizes abundance, prosperity, and good fortune for the year ahead. Made of thin hand-rolled pastry sheets, generously layered with chopped nuts -most often walnuts- and soaked in a fragrant sugar syrup, Albanian baklava is known for its rich texture and long, slow baking process, which gives it a distinctive crispness and depth of flavor. Passed down through generations, its preparation is often a communal tradition, bringing families together during festive occasions.

INGREDIENTS

Dough

• 1 kg “00” flour (or all-purpose flour)
• A pinch of salt
• 4 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks
• 250 ml yogurt and milk, mixed together
• 250 g butter
• 1 small cup apple cider vinegar
• 750 g butter, melted, for brushing between the pastry layers
• Chopped walnuts

Syrup

• 1.5 kg sugar
• 1.2 liters water
• A few lemon slices

THE RECIPE

Prepare the dough with all the ingredients until it becomes an elastic mass. Let it rest, then divide it into 4 parts. Divide each portion into 16 small balls, roll each ball out to the size of a palm. Stack 5-10 sheets on top of each other and roll them out into a large sheet the size of the baking tray. Place the pastry in the pan and brush it lightly with the butter. Continue layering the pastry, brushing with butter and adding chopped walnuts between the layers. Finish with the remaining butter poured generously over the top. Bake the baklava in a preheated oven at 180°C for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 120°C and bake for nearly 3 hours. Then, increase the temperature again to 180°C for the final 10 minutes. For the syrup: combine the sugar, water, and lemon slices in a saucepan. Boil them until the syrup is ready. Then, pour it over the baked baklava.