Cinnamon Pecan Baklava

5 from 2 votes

Cinnamon pecan baklava is sheet pan baklava made with sugar, ghee, filo pastry, ground cinnamon, and crushed pecans.

Servings:

In a pot, add water and sugar. Bring to a boil for about 5 minutes. Add lemon juice and remove from heat.

Add shelled pecans, sugar, and ground cinnamon to the food processor. Pulse on high until nuts are crushed.

Unwrap the thawed filo dough. Individual sheets are very fragile and can break easily. Prepare an area where the unrolled filo dough can be laid. Place a damp towel over the filo when not in use.
Heat butter or ghee on the stovetop. If using butter, filter out the solids.
Spread melted ghee in the pan. Add two filo sheets. Spread melted butter on top with a pastry brush. Repeat until you have 16 filo sheets on the bottom.
Spread ⅓ of the nut mixture in a thin layer. Next, continue layering filo and ghee for 3 filo sheets. Again, spread ⅓ of the nut mixture in a thin layer. Then, continue layering filo and ghee for 3 filo sheets. Make the last nut mixture layer. Layer the filo and ghee for 3 more filo sheets for the top layer of the filo dessert.
Spread melted ghee on the top. Cut the baklava before baking. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes at 375 ℉ (190 ℃).
Remove from the oven and immediately pour the cooled simple syrup mixture into the cracks. Let the baklava cool.

Thaw the frozen filo dough beforehand. Work quickly once phyllo dough is exposed to the air because it's brittle and breaks easily.
You can use butter instead of ghee. Melt butter and strain out the solids.
Substitute walnuts for pecans.
Cut baklava before baking. This is important!
Pour cooled simple syrup in the cracks of the baklava once it comes out of the oven. Make sure the simple syrup is not hot.