Dark Chocolate Maple Pecan Baklava Rolls

Enjoying homemade baklava feels like a guilty pleasure. I grew up in a home where we made it all the time using melted butter to generously coat the filo. The truth is, you can use either butter or oil and in fact, many Greeks make it with oil at home. Not because they have anything against using butter, but many desserts are oil based in Greece since there is an abundance of olive oil. For the baked goods, they use the lighter color that has very little olive taste, unless of course that is a flavor they want to highlight.  It’s an acceptable dessert to make during the Lenten season since it has no milk, dairy or eggs…and if you are using oil, you are good to go.

When you make it at home you can use either melted butter or oil, and I prefer to make it with oil. Traditional baklava is made with walnuts, however in Middle Eastern cultures you will often see pistachios used…I have even seen peanuts in baklava, but you can use just about anything you want.

My favorite way to make baklava is with pecans, and if I want it to be really decadent I add finely chopped dark chocolate. I also make the syrup with a combination of sugar, water and maple syrup along with a little really good maple extract. I go lightly on the cinnamon and other spices because I really want the maple flavor to be the start of the show.

The great thing about baklava is that you can layer it in a large sheet pan and tuck in all of the nuts into a large filo pocket that is then cut into the more traditional diamond shapes, or you can make them into rolls. You can assemble the rolls in a large sheet pan side by side or you can line them in a round baking pan, and serve as a small wedge. I love to serve it this way because it’s so unique looking and people really love this presentation.

Whether you choose to make this for Lent without the chocolate or for any other occasion, I encourage you to try it with the pecans and the dark chocolate…it is truly extraordinary.

Dark Chocolate Maple Pecan Baklava Rolls
1 pound packet of filo (thawed in refrigerator overnight)
4 cups pecans
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ¼ cups dark chocolate
1/3 cup light colored olive oil or vegetable oil

Maple Syrup
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 cups maple syrup
1 cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons good quality maple extract

To make the syrup, place everything in a small pot and bring to a rolling boil then reduce to moderate heat and cook for 10 minutes then remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature. This will be poured over the baklava as soon as it come out of the oven.

If your filo is frozen, make sure to thaw it out in your refrigerator overnight. To begin, put the pecans, dark chocolate pieces, granulated sugar and the cinnamon into your food processor and grind everything together until you have finely ground crumbs like this…

To begin making the rolls, remove the thawed filo from the plastic packet and cut it in half. You will use the entire quantity of dough, but place half back into the refrigerator so that it does not dry out. Make sure to wrap it well before placing in the refrigerator. First, brush on a thin layer of oil onto the filo and then add 3 generous tablespoons of nut filling all over the sheet of dough. Use the handle of a large wooden spoon or a thick knitting needle to roll roll up each roll like this…

Once you have rolled it up, you can lift the whole thing up with either the wooden spoon handle or knitting needle, and place it in the pan you are using.

As you place it in, scrunch it up to get the craggly look on the filo dough. Now, remember to coat this with a little oil and then repeat the process until you have finished all of the filo and nut mixture. I used 3 layers of filo for each roll and it held well for me, if you find that it is difficult to handle use 4 layers of filo dough. When I started it looked like this…

And when I finished, it looked like this…

Bake it in a 350°F oven for about 40-45 minutes until the whole thing is a lovely golden brown color like this…

Next pour on the room temperature syrup as soon as the baklava comes out of the oven. This is important because it will absorb the most syrup this way. I pour on about half of the syrup and let it soak in like this…

Then I pour on ½ of what is left and if it absorbs it all, I will add the rest, if not I just keep it and serve a little more  syrup during service with each wedge.