Dutch Oven Baklava

This recipe and story is included in my Dutch oven cookbook, "Around the World in a Dutch Oven"

I love baklava.

Let me say that again, and make it more clear:

I LOVE BAKLAVA.

Truly it is the dessert of the gods.

And making it was a lot of fun.  It’s simple, yet complex.  It’s peasant, yet elegant.  Few ingredients combine for amazing flavor.  It’s labor-intensive, but every delicate bite is worth the effort.  It’s... yeah...  You get the point.  Plus, I think that baklava’s calories don’t count, right?

Michelle, my wife’s cousin, told me that when I had asked her to help me make baklava, she had been surprised and wondered if that could be done in a dutch oven.  I love to try and cook things in dutch ovens that aren’t supposed to be cooked in dutch ovens!  I’m kinda twisted that way.

This one will be a little bit difficult to write up, because Michelle is much more of a free spirit in th kitchen.  Be warned that many of the amounts that I’ve listed here are approximations and guesses.  I remember the ingredients we used, but the measurements aren’t so critical.  Also, I think that much of the success of baklava is in the process, not so much the exact amounts.

Dutch Oven Baklava

12” shallow dutch oven

12-14 coals below
24-28 coals above

• 2 Cups Walnuts, chopped
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• Liberal shakes of cinnamon

• Fillo Dough
• Two sticks of butter, melted

• About ½ cup Honey
• About ¼ cup Sugar
• Water to make a medium-thick syrup.

We started by mixing the first set of ingredients.  It’s pretty straight-forward.  Chop up the nuts, mix in the sugar and the cinnamon.  It does work better if the brown sugar is fresh, otherwise, you’ll have hard chunks to break up.  Not fun.

Then it came time to make the layers.  We simply melted the butter in the microwave.  It would be easy enough to simply put the 8” dutch oven on a few coals and melt it that way.  In fact, you could keep a few coals on it during the layering process and it would keep it from cooling and solidifying.  You don’t want to boil it.

Then, we unrolled the Fillo dough (store-bought) from the package.  It was a wide rectangular stack, which we cut in half (to a little bigger than an 8.5x11 sheet of paper).  The two halves were stacked on top of each other, then put on top of and underneath sheets of wax paper.  That was all topped with a slightly damp towel, to keep the Fillo dough moist.

With a pastry brush, we spread a little butter in the bottom of the dutch oven, then spread one of the sheets of Fillo dough.  With the brush, we brushed butter in the corners of the “paper” and gently over the dough’s surface. The next one we put in the same way, but at a 90-degree angle.  We brushed butter onto that one as well.  We went on stacking, layering Fillo, butter, Fillo, butter, each sheet at a ninety degree angle, crossways from the one below it.   I wondered if it would work to do it at a 60-degree angle, and go around the circle in sixths instead.  I doubt it would have made much difference.

After about a third of the total layers of fillo dough, we spread an even layer (not too thick) of the nut and sugar mixture, enough to cover the dough.  You shouldn’t be able to see through the nuts to the dough, but no deeper than that. If you don’t already have coals burning, you should go out and light them at this point. We already had coals lit and cooking the dolmades.

Then, we got back to the layering, for another third of the dough.   We followed that with another spread of nuts and sugar. At this point, your coals should be nice and hot.  We put a whole bunch on the dutch oven lid, and let it pre-heat.  Finally, we layered the rest of the dough.

The next step was to get a knife and cut the slices.  This is where you can make the characteristic diamond patter.  I don’t know if this is anything other than tradition.  It could be rooted in some esoteric cooking reasoning.  I don’t know why it’s done.  You do need to cut it, and it needs to be cut at this stage because it will be to crisp and crackly to cut later, and the syrup needs to be able to run down into the baklava.  However, I don’t know why it should be done in diamonds.

While that was cooking, we made the syrup.  Actually, we ate the dolmades and the soup.  But had we been really on top of things, we would have made the syrup while the baklava was cooking.  We did it on the stove top.  If I had been going “purist-style”, we would have made the syrup in my 8” dutch oven.  Simply combine the syrup set ingredients and simmer until it’s the right consistency.  Not as thick as the honey, but not as runny as the water.  Somewhere in between.

We put it on the coals and cooked it for about a half hour to 40 minutes.  When the top layer was a nice golden brown, it was time to take it off.

With the baklava baked and brown, and the syrup ready, simply pour the syrup over the baklava. It will run into the cracks between the baklava pieces that you cut, and soak into the fillo dough layers.  That will give it that sticky, gooey sweetness that you love so much about baklava.

Then, let it cool a little, and serve it up!  Ours didn’t last long, so I have no idea how long it’ll keep!


Cooking in a Dutch oven can be so much fun!  Here are some camping Dutch oven recipes!




Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Dolmades

When I first heard of dolmades (or “dolmas”, or just “rolled grape leaves”), I was kinda grossed out.  It didn’t sound very good.  But once I had tried them, I was hooked.  I love these things!  And when I started doing dutch ovens, I knew that at some point I was going to try to make them.

My wife’s cousin, Michelle, knows how to cook a lot of Middle-eastern and Mediterranean foods, so I asked her to come over and show me.  So, she did!  There was one major miscommunication, that I somehow missed, and I cooked the rice before hand.  Shouldn’ta done that.  But other than that, it all turned out.

The idea was to kind of do a whole greek/middle eastern meal: Dolmades, a chicken/rice/lemon soup, and baklava.  It didn’t turn out quite as I had anticipated.  I think I shoulda taken it a bit at a time.  The soup was blah, but the dolmades and the baklava turned out great.


As I was preparing to write up the recipe, here, I did a little research, and confirmed some things I already kind knew.  Like, that there are soooo many variations of this dish that you really can’t do it wrong.  Even from family to family, the flavor and the recipes change so much.  It all remains similar, but don’t be afraid to make it your own.

Dolmades in a Dutch Oven

12” dutch oven
20+ coals below for the meat filling
12-15 coals above and below for the final cooking.

    * olive oil
    * 1 medium to large onion, diced
    * 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
    * 1-1 ½  lbs of ground meat (pretty much any kind except pork, and not a sausage)
    * 1-2 Tbsp Baharat
    * Other spices or flavorings, as you choose, like:
          o cinnamon
          o Allspice
          o minced fresh parsley
          o minced fresh mint leaves
          o pine nuts
          o lemon zest
          o salt
          o pepper
    * 1 ½ cups uncooked rice
    * extra water, as needed


    * Grape leaves, blanched


    * 2-3 tomatoes, chopped
    * 3 cups chicken stock or water
    * More alternate flavorings:
          o Lemon juice and lemon wedges
          o 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced



This adventure started by putting about 20 coals under a dutch oven with a little oil in the bottom.  I diced up an onion and minced the garlic cloves and, when the oil was hot enough, tossed them in to saute.  If they sizzle and jump right away, you know it was hot enough.  I ground on a little salt, too.

Once the onions were browned a little, I added in the meat.  This time, I used ground turkey.  If I can acquire it next time, I’ll use lamb, but ordinary ground beef is ok, too. As that was browning, I added in the baharat.  Baharat is a mix of spices commonly used in middle eastern cooking.  You can buy it at a specialty market, or using the wikipedia as a guide, mix your own.  Really, the seasonings and the flavorings are completely up to you.  Again, there are so many regional and familial variations on this dish that you really can’t go wrong.

Once this is cooked, I pulled it off the heat and let it cool some.  Then, I added in the rice.  Don’t cook the rice.  That was a mistake I made.  With all this, the filling is ready.


I rinsed out the dutch oven, and wiped it down. I spread a little olive oil in the bottom, and we got ready to roll the dolmas.  One suggestion that Michelle made was to spread a layer of chopped tomatoes over the bottom of the pan, to raise up the dolmas and make them not burn or stick to the pan.  That sounded like a great idea, but we didn’t have any tomatoes.  You try it and tell me how it works.  Instead, we covered the bottom of the pan with one layer of flat grape leaves.

So, here’s how to roll the dolmas:

   1. Separate out a grape leaf, and pinch off any of the stem that’s left.
   2. Lay it flat, with the vein side up, and unfold it, if there are any folds.
   3. Spread a finger-width spot of filling (about 2 finger joints long) on the leaf.  Put it just above where the stem was. (see the picture).
   4. Fold the lower part of the leaf up and over the filling.
   5. Fold the sides over the filling
   6. Roll it the rest of the way up
   7. Place it on the leaves or the tomatoes in the bottom of the dutch oven, making a single layer of dolmas.

   8. Keep going.  You can add on a second layer if you have enough leaves and filling.



After we’d rolled up all of our filling, I added some of the garlic slices and lemon slices on top.  Then we poured on the stock.  The dolmas tended to float a little, and Michelle said you can put a plate on them to weigh them down.

This went on the coals.  As I did some research afterward, some people cook them in a skillet, uncovered.  I used the coals listed above, with the dutch oven lid on, half above, half below.  You don’t need to cook it long, just to cook the rice and the leaves.  Maybe about 10-15 minutes, once it’s boiling.  I would watch for venting steam out of the lid of the dutch oven, and pull them off about 10 minutes or so later.

Now, at this point, we were pretty busy making the soup and the baklava, so I didn’t make any of the cucumber yogurt sauce (tzatziki) that I love so much with dolmades.  But I added a link to the recipe.

So, on to the Baklava!






Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Kofta bi Tahini

"The Cat's Away..." Part II

Another dish that I love, but is not one of my wife's favorites is Kofta with Tahini sauce.  There are a lot of strong flavors in it, and they all blend together very nicely.  At it's most basic, it's a ground meat and potato dish, but it gets its flavors from the middle eastern spices and the tahini paste with lemon juice sauce.

Before I get into the process, there are a few special ingredients you need to acquire, and you might have to get them from a specialty store, possibly even a middle eastern market.  If you can't find them, you can do some mixing (in some cases) and some substitutions.

One ingredient you really can't substitute is the Tahini Paste.  It's like all-natural peanut butter, but it's made from ground sesame seeds.  I can usually find it in health-food stores.  It has a strong, nutty and almost bitter edge, but when combined with the lemon juice it's just plain amazing.

Another is a middle-eastern blend of spices.  This you might have to get from a middle-eastern market.  Sometimes it's just called "Middle-Eastern Spice" and sometimes it's called "Baharat".  If you can't find it, you can make it by following the blend here at wikipedia.  There are lots of different blends of baharat.  A good basic blend will include:

• Cumin
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Tumeric
• Coriander

If all else fails, you can use Allspice.  It won't be the same, but it's still good.

A third issue is the meat.  Most of the time I've eaten this it's been made of ground beef.  This time, I tried it with lamb, and I think that made a big difference to the overall success of the dish this time.  Of course, lamb is pretty expensive.  In theory, you could use any ground meat, even turkey.  No self-respecting muslim would use pork, of course, but if you're a christian, or an atheist, go for it.

I first cooked this dish way back in the early days of Mark's Black Pot, and I've only done it once or twice since then.  It was taught to me by a Palestinian friend and his wife (who also provided me with the jar of home-mixed baharat).

So, let's get started, shall we?

Kofta bi Tahini in the Dutch Oven

12” Dutch Oven
10 briquettes below
16 briquettes above

• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt

• 2-3 medium potatoes, quartered and sliced, or sliced like big french fries

• 1 lb ground meat (as mentioned, I used lamb this time)
• 1 Tbsp baharat spices (or equivalent)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• If you squeeze your lemon juice fresh (for the next set of ingredients), zest one of those lemons and add it here)

• 1 cup tahini paste
• ~1/2 cup lemon juice
• ~1/2 cup water

It all started by lighting up some coals, heating up the oil in the dutch oven, and sauteing the onions and the garlic. Once those were browned and translucent, I added the potatoes.  I stirred them to coat them with the oil and salt, and put the lid on.  I didn't shift the coals to the top yet, though.

Then I made the meat mixture.  It was pretty simple, I just added all of the ingredients together and mixed them all up.  Traditionally, the meat is formed into elongated meatballs, almost finger-shaped.

Then, I mixed up the tahini sauce.  This was a little trickier.  The amounts are estimates.  I stirred in equal amounts of water and lemon juice, but only a bit at a time.  You want two things to happen:  One, it needs to come to a thick soup-like consistency, and Two, it needs to balance the taste between the lemon and the tahini.  Words can't describe that balance, you just need to taste it along the way and see when it all blends right.  I just kept adding juice and water until it all looked and tasted right.  A pinch of salt will also help bring out the flavors.

Then, I opened the dutch oven lid and arranged the meat sticks on top of the potatoes and onions.  I poured the tahini sauce over it, and then dashed in about a quarter cup more water. 

I adjusted the coals to the right amounts above and below for baking, and set it to cook.  It cooked for about 45 minutes or so.  After about a half hour, the meat was getting cooked through, so I stirred it up.  If you stir it up before that, it'll all break apart.  When the potatoes are done, it's finished!

I also pulled out my 8" dutch oven and cooked up some rice.  I also made some of that cucumber and yogurt salad that was in that first blog entry I did when I made this in my dutch ovens so many years ago.  This time, however, I didn't have any tomatoes.

It was so much better this time than I'd ever made it before.  I was in heaven.  Even Jodi said it wasn't too bad when she came home.





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

My Son

So, the other night, I was making some Kofta. Remember, I made that one a while back, and I'm the only one in my family that will eat it...?

Well, suddenly my son says he wants to cook something, too. My first reaction is to sigh and roll my eyes, because I'm kinda stressed putting this meal together already. But, he's insistent, and I want to teach him how to cook, and especially how to cook in the Dutch Oven. So, we start looking around at what to cook.

He grabs a bag out of the fridge which contains the tiny fillets of a fish he caught on an outing a couple of weeks ago. Really, the fish should've been thrown back, but it was still in the legal keeper range, and it was the only one he'd caught thus far, so we kept it. Good thing, too, as it was the only thing caught in the whole boat the whole day. I think I'm cursed, but that's a subject for another blog.

Anyway, I latch onto this as a great idea. We can make this work. I grab up my 8" oven, and we pour about a half cup of rice in the bottom, with about a cup of water. On top of that, the fish fillets. Then some seasonings. Hmmm. Seems like the lemon pepper isn't shaking out so smooth. He opens it up and shakes. You guessed it--it dumps!

We spend a few moments scooping out as much as we can, and put it out under the coals, next to my 12" of Kofta.

Before long, they're both bubbling. One time, he checks it and stirs it up a bit, and of course the fish breaks up. That's what I'd expected it to do, so it's really a rice dish with fish and lemon for flavor.

It actually turned out not too bad. It was a bit sour from too much lemon pepper, but not intolerably so. The fish was cooked fine, and my boy had the experience of dutching with his dad, and cooking a fish he'd caught. A pretty good evening, doncha think?

Oh, yeah, about the Kofta...

I did it pretty much as the old recipe was, except that I did 3 cups of water instead of two. That made for a more "sauce-y" mixture. I also lightened up on the parsley, which I liked, and the lemon juice, which I didn't like so much. I do like it with more lemon. I did the salad, too, and that was yummy. I chopped up the jalepeno bits more so this time, so it gave an edge to the whole dish instead of getting a hot bite once in a while.

A Palestinian Dish

One of the things I love about doing dutch oven cooking is that it can cook so much, and such a variety. That’s why I’m constantly on the lookout for dishes that I can make that take it a bit beyond the cobblers, biscuits, and barbecue chickens that are the staples of the backporch kitchen. I love telling someone that I just cooked this or that, and seeing the looks on their faces when they say, “I didn’t know you could do that in a dutch oven!”

Having said that, let me tell you another story. My wife’s cousin married a Palestinian man, named Issa. He and I have become pretty good friends. He’s pretty cool, but overall he’s had a tough time adjusting to life in America. Still, after three years or so, he’s catching on.

He makes a traditional Palestinian dish, called Kofta bi Tahini. Kofta is a mixture of ground meat (usually beef, but sometimes lamb) and herbs and spices. It’s shaped into a sort of cigar shape, and then cooked in lots of different ways, like baking or grilling. But my favorite is when it’s baked with potatoes and a Tahini sauce.

My wife thinks this is kind of an acquired taste, but, personally, I acquired it pretty fast. I could chug this stuff non-stop. It does have a pretty strong taste. If you aren’t used to foreign foods, and you want to try this, then you might use a little less parsley and a little less lemon juice. But, to me, that's what makes it great.

Anyway, in my effort to be a little bit different, today I made this Palestinian meal in my American dutch oven. Talk about an multi-national experience...


Kofta bi Tahini

12” Dutch Oven
10 briquettes below
16 briquettes above

1 lb ground meat (lamb or beef (maybe mixed))
1/3 cup chopped parsley (preferably fresh, but I’ve also used dried)
1 med onion, chopped
1 tsp salt
3 tsp mid east spices (baharat, cinnamon, ginger)
1 tbsp olive oil

2 medium potatoes, sliced ¼ inch
1 cup rice

1 cup Tahini paste (sort of like peanut butter, except it’s made with sesame seeds instead of peanuts. You can get it at natural food stores and middle eastern markets. Mainstream supermarket staff will look at you funny when you ask them for it. Trust me…).
½ cup lemon juice
2 cups water


Start with the meat. I usually use ground beef, because I have such a hard time finding lamb. I did find some when I made the Irish stew, but that’s another story. Put the meat, the parsley, the onion, the salt, the spices, and the oil in a bowl and stir it all up. When it’s all nicely blended, scoop some up in the palm of your hand and squeeze it into a finger or cigar shape, maybe about three inches long, and a little thicker than your finger. Set these aside.

Slice potatoes into ¼” quarter slices.

Then, scatter a cup of uncooked rice over the bottom of your dutch oven. Layer the potato slices on top of the rice. Place the Kofta shapes on top of the potatoes in a ring, with a couple in the middle.

Mix tahini, lemon juice, and water It’ll take some stirring to dissolve the tahini and blend it all. Pour the mixture over the meat, potatoes and rice, covering all.

Then put it on the coals. I baked it for about 45 minutes, turning the lid and the oven often, but not opening the lid everytime. Toward the end, check on the rice. Some of the grease from the meat will seep down and make the rice crispy, so you don’t want to overcook the rice.

This dish is traditionally served with this Arabic salad (on the side):

2 cucumbers , chopped
4 small tomatoes , chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
small finely diced onion (optional) , chopped
½ jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
¼ c lemon juice
tablespoon olive oil (optional)
¾-1 cup of plain yogurt


Mix the cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, jalapeno, and onion in a bowl. Just before serving, add the salt, lemon and olive oil and stir. Last of all, spoon in the yogurt and stir it all up.

I honestly don’t know which I like better, the Kofta or the salad. I could eat them both until I explode. But you be the judge. And, if you end up acquiring the taste, then you can join me for dinner someday!