I started with a recipe from CrandleCakes and made slight adjustments, but not much!
Ingredients
1 T cinnamon
6 oz each- pistachios, walnuts, pecans
⅔ cup raw sugar
1 pound (1 package) thawed phyllo dough
4 oz. coconut oil (if you don’t like coconut oil, use all margarine)
4 oz. vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)
2 cups agave
1 cup water
¼ cup orange juice
1 t lemon juice
Process
If your phyllo is frozen (it probably is), thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then set it out for an hour or so before you use it. Don’t thaw on the counter!
Open the dough and unroll. Trim it to fit in your pan size. It will be around a 13×9, but I found myself trimming about ½ inch length and width. DD used the extra to make a separate mini baklava.
In a food processor or mixer, chop together cinnamon, nuts, and sugar until the pieces are the size you want them. This took about 15 seconds in the Vitamix, but will depend on your appliance. A little more fine will make a more dense pastry.
Put margarine and coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl and heat until just melted.
Use a pastry brush or new painting brush to apply a layer of the melted margarine. Lay down a sheet of phyllo. Repeat 9 times (total of 10 layers). Curse and wonder why you started this.
Sprinkle around ⅓ of the nut mixture over the dough.
Add six more layers of phyllo and margarine, then ⅓ of the nuts, then six more, then ⅓ of the nuts.
Finally, do 10 more layers of the phyllo and margarine. You’ll probably be sweaty and oily by now.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350*. Leave the oven on.
Remove from oven and slice into squares or diamonds or whatever. I meant to do diamonds until I realized it was hard to slice and decided squares were great!
Bake for 30 minutes at 350*. Yep again.
While it’s baking, combine agave, water, orange juice, and lemon juice in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn off to cool.
Remove baklava and allow both that and the syrup to cool for 30 minutes or so. Recut if needed. Drizzle with about ¾ of the syrup (I actually just put it all on, but if you want to save some for serving).
Cover and refrigerate 6-8 hours before serving.
Optional: Drizzle slices with more syrup right before you serve.
