Homemade baklava can be a bit overwhelming. But these baklava bars couldn’t be easier. With pistachios and Jameson for blended Irish-Greek spirit!
Over the past month I have consistently rotated around through Mexican, Greek, and more recently Irish/St. Patrick’s Day recipes. While today’s recipe primarily resides in the Greek category the green of the pistachios was good enough reason for me to double dip these into St. Patrick’s Day as well. To seal the deal, I even threw in a little bit of Jameson whiskey into the glaze because why not? I think these components would be good in the form of baklava thumbprint cookies as well.
One year ago: Mini Rainbow Cheesecake Bites
Two years ago: Skinny Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cupcakes
Four years ago: Irish Car Bomb Brownies
PISTACHIO BAKLAVA BARS
Makes 24 bars
Ingredients:
CRUST
1 (1 lb. 1.5 oz.) pouch sugar cookie mix
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 egg
FILLING
1-1/2 cups chopped roasted pistachios
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
8 frozen mini fillo shells
GLAZE
1/3 cup honey, plus more for garnish
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp whiskey or bourbon (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the bottom of 13×9-inch pan with cooking spray, set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer, combine cookie crust ingredients until soft dough forms. Press dough evenly into the bottom of prepared pan. Bake 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir pistachios, sugar, butter, cinnamon and salt with a fork until mixture is well mixed and crumbly.
- Sprinkle nut mixture evenly over partially baked base. With hands, crumble frozen fillo shells evenly over nut mixture. Bake 18 to 20 minutes longer or until golden brown.
- Meanwhile, in a small microwavable bowl, microwave honey, butter, brown sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon uncovered on HIGH for 1 minute or until bubbly. Stir in vanilla and liquor, if using.
- Drizzle honey mixture evenly over fillo. Cool completely, about 2 hours.
- Cut into bars. Before serving, drizzle a little honey over each bar. Store covered at room temperature.
Source: Slightly adapted from Betty Crocker.
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7 comments
[…] layers of phyllo intimidate me, even if I use premade sheets. As such, I have resorted to making baklava cookie bars for years because they are a deliciously easy […]
Ooh, these sound fantastic and I love that they’re not as stressful to make as traditional baklava. The flavors in there sound SO good – YUM!
How creative is this?! You’re killing it this week. First with the Oreo Lasagna and now this!
Thanks Brittaney!
This one and the previous two recipes look awfully good. I will print them out and try them.
You can easily make these baklava bars with walnuts too. The original recipe used walnuts, I just wanted to use pistachios for their green-ness and overall deliciousness.
ohhhhhh such a cool variation on baklava!