Gluten-Free Baklava with Rice Flour and Walnuts
Fragrant homemade baklava with delicate gluten-free pastry sheets made from rice flour, a rich walnut filling, and a light lemon syrup.
Preparation
55 minutes
Baking
35 minutes
Servings
16
Difficulty
Hard
Ingredients
- 180 g BodPie rice flour
- 120 g corn starch
- 20 g tapioca starch
- 2 tbsp psyllium husk
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 260 ml warm water
- For the filling
- 350 g ground walnuts
- 80 g brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 130 g melted butter
- For the syrup
- 250 g sugar
- 250 ml water
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 small strip of lemon zest
Instructions
- Combine the rice flour, both starches, psyllium husk, xanthan gum and salt.
- Add the oil and warm water. Knead into a smooth, soft dough. Cover and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, combine the ground walnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Roll each portion very thinly between two sheets of baking paper, into a rectangle the size of your baking tray.
- Brush a rectangular baking tray with a little melted butter. Place in the first pastry sheet, brush with butter, and repeat with two more sheets.
- Spread the walnut filling evenly over the pastry. Cover with the remaining three sheets, brushing each one with butter.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the baklava into diamonds or squares before baking. Pour over the remaining melted butter.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 175°C, conventional top-and-bottom heat, for around 35 minutes, until deeply golden.
- While the baklava bakes, prepare the syrup. Place the sugar, water and lemon zest in a small saucepan. Simmer for 8–10 minutes, then add the lemon juice and honey. Leave the syrup to cool slightly.
- Pour the cool syrup over the hot baklava. Leave to stand for at least 4 hours so it absorbs the syrup well.
