Description
Walnuts, chocolate and cranberries make a sumptuous filling in these festive Baklava wreathes rolled in flaky phyllo and infused with orange accented syrup.
Special Equipment
Wooden or metal dowel (1/4 – 3/8” diameter)
Ingredients
- 1 roll Athens® Phyllo Dough (9” x 14”), thawed
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cups water
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1″ x 2″ strip orange peel
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 1/4 sticks butter, melted
- 1 cup green candy melts
- 1 cup red candy melts
- 100 red mini M&M’s (optional)
Directions
Thaw one roll of phyllo, following thawing instructions on package. Preheat oven to 350°F.
Combine sugar, water, honey and orange peel in a small pot over high heat until just beginning to boil. Reduce heat to a very low simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
Place walnuts, chocolate chips, cranberries and orange zest in a food processor and pulse several times until mixture comes together and is coarsely ground. Set aside for filling.
Unroll and cover phyllo sheets with plastic wrap and then a slightly damp towel to prevent drying out. Place one sheet of phyllo on work surface with short side closest to you. Lightly brush with melted butter and fold lower edge of phyllo up 2 1/2″. Place 1 – 1 1/2 tablespoons filling mixture in a line about 2” from short edge. Lay a wooden or metal dowel (1/4 – 3/8” diameter) along short edge near filling. Fold phyllo over dowel and carefully roll up over filling continuing to the end. If you roll too tightly the filling will burst. Grasping the phyllo on both ends of dowel, gently press together forming gathers. slide off dowel, bend into a circle/wreath shape bringing ends together and tucking one a little behind the other. Repeat procedure to make 19 more wreaths. Place close together (slightly touching) on baking tray. Brush lightly with butter. Bake 20 minutes or until phyllo just begins to become golden. Immediately after removing from oven, ladle syrup evenly over wreaths. Allow to cool completely and absorb syrup for at least 3 hours or overnight, uncovered.
Melt green and red candy melts separately according to package instructions and put in squeeze bottles )or use a spoon to drizzle decorations). Squeeze dabs of green onto wreaths to represent holly leaves and red for bows. Either press mini M&M’s into the green as berries or simply squeeze small dollops of red. Place on rack to dry. Once decoration has hardened the baklava wreaths can be served or stored in airtight containers at room temperature for 1 week. If stacking them in container, separate with sheets of wax paper.
Nutrition
Serving size: 1 wreath (68g), Amount per serving: Calories 290, Total Fat – 14g, Saturated fat – 8g, Trans Fat – 0g, Cholesterol – 10mg, Sodium – 35mg, Dietary Fiber – 1g, Total Carbohydrate – 37g, Total Sugars – 28g, Protein –3g, Vitamin D – 0%, Calcium 6%, Iron 20%, Potassium 2%
Tips
*Special Equipment needed – 1 wood or metal dowel 1/4″-3/8″ in diameter.
