Saragli’

Saragli’ is a traditional Christmas Greek sweet with plenty of grated walnuts and crispy phyllo drizzled  with sweet and spicy syrup.

It is basically  “baklava”  that is rolled instead of layered. Phyllo sheets are brushed with butter, covered in a seasoned walnut mixture, and rolled up. 

If you like crispy pastries, dried fruits, an intense scent of cinnamon and cloves in your home, this is the right recipe for you! Merry Christmas!

This recipe has been adapted by Akis Petretzikis saragli recipe

Ingredients:

For syrup

• 500 g granulated sugar – 300 ml water – 4 cloves – 1 cinnamon stick – Rind from 1 orange – juice of half orange

For saragli

• 400 g butter
• 100 g walnuts
• 100 g almonds
• 100 g pistachio nuts
• 2teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 packages phyllo dough (900 g)
• pistachio nuts, ground, for serving

Syrup:

• In a pot, add the sugar, water, cinnamon stick, cloves and orange rind.
• Place pot over medium heat.
• In about 2-3 minutes, as soon as the sugar melts, remove pot from heat.
• Add the orange juice, stir and set aside to cool.

Saragli’:

• Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
• In a food processor  grind the walnuts, almonds, cinnamon and cloves together. You don’t want to finely grind them but you don’t want to have large pieces because they will rip through the phyllo dough.
• Transfer the filling to a bowl and transfer the melted butter to a separate bowl.
• Preheat the oven to 160° C (320° F)
• Spread out the phyllo dough on a clean working surface.
• Lay one sheet of phyllo dough separately on your working surface. Drizzle with melted butter, making sure not to let the brush directly touch the phyllo.
• Cover with another sheet of phyllo and drizzle with butter.
• Spread the filling over the entire surface.
• Place two wooden sticks in the middle of the phyllo and roll the smaller side towards the middle, leaving an empty space at the edge.
• Do not roll too tight and gently press the ends together towards the middle with your hands, creating folds in the phyllo and remove the sticks.
• Brush a 30×40 cm baking pan with butter and add the sargli.
• Drizzle with butter immediately and repeat the same process until the baking pan is full of saragli rolls.
• When the pan is full, drizzle any leftover butter over the sargli rolls.
• Bake for 70 minutes.
• When ready, remove from oven and immediately pour the cool syrup over the scorching hot saragli rolls.The temperature of the pastry must be always opposite than the syrup. This is the key for a successful baklava /saragli’
• Allow them to soak up the syrup for 30 minutes.
• Sprinkle with ground pistachio nuts and serve