Yesterday I served this Oreo Baklava at a luncheon. Now before you jump your guns and ask “But…Why? Why ‘waste’ 2 perfectly good packets of Oreos?” Allow me to explain. I’ve been wanting to make baklava for years. I had the good fortune of meeting a Greek lady on the set of Winners & Loosers years ago when I moonlighted as a TV Extra (whilst vetting and blogging…). I can’t recall how our conversation turned from casual greetings to a deep (and delicious) conversation about baklava. But how could it not? She’s Greek! I love baklava! We obviously had too much in common for her not to share her family recipe with me.

Her recipe sounded easy enough: “layers and layers of filo pastry”, “melt butter, sugar and honey”, “crush lots of nuts”…but I stopped paying attention when almonds, walnuts and pistachios were mentioned. You see, I’m married to someone is allergic to nuts. My dear husband has never tasted the glorious sweetness of Nutella, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or Baci chocolates. So for me to make baklava it would be highly insensitive, and leave me entirely at the mercy of a whole slab of nutty baklava.

So you can imagine my shock when hubby came home one day with a box filled with… wait for it…nut-free baklavas!!! Turns out that one of his clever colleagues has mastered the art of creating baklavas with Oreo and Tim Tam biscuits and Twix bars!

Now that hubby has fully embraced baklava, thanks to “Fresh Prince of Baklava“, I have the perfect excuse to ‘waste’ 2 packets of Oreos! After all, his wish is my command.

I found [this recipe] and watched [this video] on Google and kinda ran with it. But I made 3 mistakes:

1) I didn’t thaw the filo pastry flat- I left it folded so the layers stuck to each other a little bit which made peeling them a little tricky.

2) I didn’t realize that ‘2 cups of butter’ meant 2 blocks (500g) of butter. That’s a LOT of butter isn’t it?! I only used about 200g, so this is my ‘lite’ version.

3) I pressed down a little too hard on my layers, hence why it’s not as puffy as it should be. This and the reduced butter made my version more like a ‘baklava slice’.

And I couldn’t quite manage cutting them into diamond shapes. Instead, I settled for Isosceles(-esque) triangles.

You know what’s even more amazing than baklava? The MAKING of baklava! It’s even easier than baking a cake! Sure, there’s a bit of counting, but even a toddler can do that. I must admit, painting the filo pastries brought me memories of high school art class days, where I could move my brush in any direction I liked as long as I stayed in the ‘lines’.

Do you know what the best part is? Despite my multiple blunders, it was still yummo, according to our friends. And I do feel a little bit better about the ‘tiny’ amount of butter used.

Now that I’m no longer working as a TV Extra, I have all the time in the world to make baklava, with Twix, Tim Tams, and maybe even an extra block of butter!

So, what could be possible better than 2 packets of perfectly good Oreos? An entire slab of perfectly good Oreo baklava!

————————————————————–

To make your own Oreo Baklava, check out the recipe I used [HERE].

To purchase the most creative selection of gourmet baklava, check out Fresh Prince of Baklava*.

*P.S. I’m by no means paid (in money or in baklavas) by the Fresh Prince of Baklava. I just think it would be a crime not to introduce my fellow baklava aficionados to him.