Bourekakia (Baklava 'cigars')

photo by Dasha




- Ready In:
- 1hr 25mins
- Ingredients:
- 13
- Yields:
-
42 pieces
ingredients
-
Syrup
- 1 1⁄4 cups sugar
- 3⁄4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon honey (preferably, Greek Thyme)
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 3 whole cloves
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Filling
- 3 cups ground walnuts
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 egg whites, room temperature, beaten to consistency of mayonnaise
- 1 lb phyllo pastry
- 1 cup butter, melted
- icing sugar
directions
- For syrup: Cook all ingredients in saucepan over low heat, swirling pan occasionally, until sugar dissolves, then boil 15 minutes.
- Cool completely; strain.
- For filling: Combine walnuts, cinnamon and cloves.
- Blend in 1 cup syrup and whites (mixture should not be too stiff; add up to ¼ cup additional syrup, if necessary.).
- To assemble: Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cut phyllo into 5 x 8 inch strips.
- Cover with plastic wrap and a damp towel until ready to use.
- Take a strip and brush it lightly with melted butter.
- Spread 1 heaping teaspoon of filling along narrow edge.
- Fold in sides ½ inch toward center; brush sides lightly with butter; roll up tightly.
- Repeat with remaining strips.
- Arrange seam side down on baking sheet.
- Brush with remaining butter.
- (They can be frozen at this point � increase baking time to 30-35 minutes if baking them frozen).
- Bake until golden and crisp, 20-25 minutes.
- Cool completely.
- Dust lightly with powdered sugar.
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Reviews
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I've never worked with phyllo dough, and this was the perfect recipe to practice on. Because you roll them up, it's a very forgiving recipe. It does take some time to butter and roll each one, but the results were fantastic. The exterior is flaky and buttery, and the interior has a wonderful sweet nutty flavor. Bet you can't eat just one! I did have about half of the syrup left over, and next time will cut the amount I make. This is going right into my favorite desserts cookbook.
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Since I am gluten free I didn't actually get to try these but was told by my mother they are sooo good. Masha Allah. I did do a few trials rolling them, so some wern't exactly cigars, but it was easy once I got the hang of it. I dusted them with homemade powdered sugar which included tapioca starch. My oven seemed to cook these way faster the the amount of time specified. The bottoms got too brown so I will make these again only if I get a new oven.
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Please note that a few of the ingredients are showing up incorrectly on the recipe page but are actually correct on the Submit a Correction page. The following amounts are what should appear:<br/><br/>Syrup:<br/>1 1/4 cups sugar<br/>3/4 cup water<br/>1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice<br/>1 tablespoon honey (preferably, Greek Thyme)<br/>3 cinnamon sticks<br/>3 whole cloves<br/>Filling:<br/>3 cups ground walnuts<br/>1 teaspoon cinnamon<br/>1/4 teaspoon ground cloves<br/>2 egg whites, room temperature, beaten to consistency of mayonnaise<br/>1 lb phyllo pastry<br/>1 cup butter, melted<br/>icing sugar
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OK, here goes. I live in Athens, Greece. I moved out here many, many years ago from Ottawa, Canada - so I am blessed in having two wonderful heritages!
I suffer from compulsive obsessive behaviour with regard to food and my psychiatrist thought it would be a good idea to find a 'society' where many have the same problem and try to find a cure.
So far, I've copied a couple of thousand recipes from this site and my psychiatrist has thrown the towel in and refuses to answer the phone when I call.
What did I do wrong?
Got 3 kids that keep me on the go - 10 and under at this point (2008) - I may not get round to updating this for a few years, so you'll have to do your own maths.
I teach English full-time and Greek Cookery part-time. I would like to make the cooking part of it full-time and the English Grammar part of it part-time.
That's all for now.