Make Baklava in a Fraction of the Time with This Clever Hack

I love cooking with phyllo dough, the instrumental ingredient for making flaky spanakopita and baklava. It’s sold in handy frozen sheets at the grocery, saving tons of time and effort, but it’s still finicky to work with. The layers are super thin and dry out easily, and every recipe I’ve ever used tells you to paint butter or oil between every single layer to create that signature crispy flake. It’s a true labor of love.

A clever hack on Instagram from Yumna, also known as @feelgoodfoodie, has me reconsidering how to deal with phyllo. Instead of brushing each individual layer, she simply pours melted butter or ghee over the entire pan of baklava and bakes it. The butter penetrates the layers and you still get the golden flakes that baklava is known for without the extra labor. This quick and easy solution is a game-changer and, as she says in her video, “This method will literally take you 10 minutes instead of an hour.”

Along with this tip, Yumna shares a quick and easy recipe for baklava in the caption. Several layers of phyllo are placed in a baking pan, topped with a processed mixture of walnuts and sugar, and then finally another layer of phyllo. She cuts the top into diamond shapes to make it easier to serve later and (I’m assuming) to help the butter better penetrate the dish. The ghee or melted butter goes on top and the whole thing is baked. Sugar syrup is poured over after baking and boom! It’s done.

Thanks to the pour-over butter method, this is definitely one of the easiest baklava recipes I’ve ever seen. The next time I’m hankering for some crispy, flaky layers, I’ll try Yumna’s phyllo trick.