- preheat the oven to 200°C and roast the nuts for 5 minutes (keep an eye on them so that they don’t burn), remove from the oven and let cool before placing in a food-processor and pulsing until reduced to a fine powder
- lay 2 sheets of (dry and non-buttered) filo dough, one on top of the other
- note : filo dough is fragile and rips and dries out quickly, cover with a sheet of baking paper and lay a clean kitchen towel that is slightly damp on top !
- fold over the shorter side edge (about 4 cm), place your thin baguette or rod or tube across the folded edge
- sprinkle approximately 3 tbsp of the ground nuts powders across the entire surface and even out carefully
- using the baguette, loosely roll everything up
- with your fingers on the outer ends, gently compress the filo roll (like an accordion) into a shorter roll and carefully remove/pull off the baguette
- place inside your chosen baking dish (I used a 18 cm x 18 cm square pan)
- repeat until you’ve filled up the baking dish with 6 longer rolls and they all fit snuggly inside (but not too tightly so that the butter can seep through)
- cut the long baklava rolls in half-lengths (for the butter to soak through easily)
- preheat oven to 150°C
- brush butter on top of the rolled baklava fingers (fitted snuggly in the baking dish or pan) and pour the remaining melted butter to completely soak the baklava roll completely
- bake for 75-90 minutes until golden and all of the butter has been well absorbed (after 45 minutes, tilt the pan slightly and re-brush with the melted butter on the top surfaces
- while the baklava rolls are baking, prepare the syrup
- in a saucepan, combine the sugar and juices and bring to a boil while stirring for 5 minutes then lower heat to medium-low, add the remaining ingredients (except for the floral waters) and let simmer for another 20-30 minutes until thicker, then add the floral waters, remove from the heat and let cool down before straining
- pour the cooled syrup over the hot baklava rolls and let sit and cool on the countertop for 6 hours minimum but ideally overnight for 12 hours
- note : do not refrigerate or they will get soggy, they will keep for a week on the countertop
- garnish with some additional citrus zests and crushed pistachios and serve at room temperature.
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