Chocolate baklava
Ingredients
1 cup honey
2 cinnamon sticks
2 and a half cups of mixed, unsalted nuts (hazelnuts, pistachios, almonds, walnuts) finely chopped.
1 and a half cups of hazelnut spread
150g dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
large pinch fine salt
Cooking oil spray, to grease
18 sheets filo pastry
180 g unsalted butter, melted
Method
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Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius fan-forced (200 degrees conventional). Put honey and cinnamon sticks in a medium saucepan with 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil, then cook until the syrup reaches 115 degrees Celsius on a candy thermometer. Set aside to cool. Spread nuts on a large baking tray and bake for 6 minutes, until toasted. Set aside to cool.
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Microwave the chocolate-hazelnut spread until runny, or put in a heatproof bowl and set over a sucepan of simmering water. Combine nuts, chocolate, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and salt in a large bowl.
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Grease a 23cm square, 4cm deep baking dish with oil and line the base and sides with baking paper. Brush a sheet of filo with butter, then top with a second, brush again, and finish with a third sheet. Brush the top and fold the sheets over in half and press down to make a 6-sheet stack. Press pastry into base of prepared tin. trimming edges to fit. Spread one-fifth of the chocolate-hazelnut spread evenly over pastry and sprinkle with one-fifth of nut mixture. repeat with remaining pastry, chocolate-hazelnut spread and nut mixture, finishing with pastry. Brush the top with butter.
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Use a sharp knife to cut 4cm wide diamonds into the slice, then bake for 35 minutes, until golden. Remove the cinnamon sticks from the honey syrup and pour over the top of baklava. Set aside to cool completely before slicing to serve.
