Brilliant baklava

You’ll need

Sharp knife
Chopping board
Measuring spoons
Pan
Hob
Brush
Baking tin
Blender (optional)

Scouts is open to everyone. We don’t identify exclusively with one faith, and we welcome people of all faiths and of none.

We know it’s important for people to learn about each other, including understanding different faiths and beliefs. Scouts always respects people’s beliefs, faiths and cultures, and everyone should be open to learn.

As an inclusive and values based movement, we support our members to engage and learn about different faiths and beliefs in an exciting and meaningful way, even if they don’t have a faith themselves.

Celebrating and understanding differences, including differences in faiths and beliefs, is an important part of our Scout values, which are:

Integrity: We act with integrity; we are honest, trustworthy and loyal.
Respect: We have self-respect and respect for others.
Care: We support others and take care of the world in which we live.
Belief: We explore our faiths, beliefs and attitudes.
Co-operation: We make a positive difference; we co-operate with others and make friends.

Our value of Belief and its exploration helps Scouts to learn from other faiths and beliefs. This encourages them to develop or build their personal beliefs and understand their shared values, whether faith-based on not.

We know that learning about faiths, beliefs and different attitudes can help to break down barriers, helps us all to recognise what we have in common, and teaches us to value and respect other people. It also helps us to build up respect, acceptance and knowledge for each other, leading to a more co-operative and inclusive society.

In our diverse society, people can sometimes feel cautious talking about this sensitive subject. However, it's important that Scouts offers young people safe, exciting and open spaces to explore faiths and beliefs. They should be able to engage in personal reflection, as they question and develop their opinions and understanding of the world around them.

Making time for personal reflection and developing our beliefs means exploring the places, people, communities, celebrations or stories which hold meaning for us, and it may not necessarily mean exploring a faith.

For example, someone’s shared values may be their Scout Values and that person may choose to reflect on them at important times, such as when they make their Promise. Others may choose to reflect at certain times of the year, such as a faith-based festival, birthdays, meaningful events or at New Year. Some people may still celebrate events, such as Christmas, but use it as a time to celebrate family, friends and loved ones, as well as for charity and giving.

Discover more about Faiths and Beliefs in Scouts.

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Setting up this activity

There’s lots of loud noises, sitting and different smells when eating, which may overwhelm some people. People may choose to wear ear defenders while eating, move around while eating or sit in a separate space to everyone and that’s OK.
Be conscious about who may be fasting when providing snacks, eating and drinking – you may want to plan this activity for when everyone can get involved or leave out the eating and drinking part.

Using a kitchen and preparing to cook 

You could run our kitchen safety and hygiene activities, Kitchen risk bingo and Home kitchen hygiene prior to running this session.
Remember to have a hand washing station and take extra hygiene precautions when handling food. Take a look at our guidance on food preparation.
Make sure you have all the ingredients ready. 
You may want to run a fire safety talk or show people how to use the equipment safely, such as for cooking or chopping ingredients.

Allergies and dietary requirements

Check for allergies, eating problems or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. This may include make sure there’s no cross-contamination during food storage, serving and preparation too.
Check if there are any items of food (or packaging) that people can’t touch or be near to or if there are items that people might not be comfortable using in the activity.
Some people may not like certain food textures or tastes and that’s OK. Try to find an alternative for them. No-one has to use all the ingredients or be made to try foods if they’re not happy, comfortable or don’t want to.

Introducing the activity

Gather everyone together and tell them that you’re going to make some Baklava.
Explain that Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are celebrated in Islam, which is the second largest religion in the world. It has over one billion followers, who are called Muslims. There are five pillars of Islam: the declaration of faith (Shahadah), praying five times a day (Salat), giving money to charity (Zakat), fasting (Sawm) and pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj). The five pillars of Islam provide a framework for a Muslim’s whole life – it’s about putting their faith first, not trying to fit their faith around the rest of their life.
Tell everyone that baklava is often eaten on Eid.

Bake your baklava

Ingredients

200g roasted, shelled pistachios
300g shelled walnuts
500g filo pastry
100g melted ghee
100g honey
Half teaspoon orange blossom water
200g caster sugar
300ml water

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20–25 mins

Serves: 8

Make the baklava

Finely chop or blend 50g of your pistachios, then keep them to one side to use later.
Blend the rest of the pistachios and all of the walnuts into a fine crumb.
Lay out the filo pastry sheets and cut them to fit the shape of your chosen baking tin.
Layer 150g of filo pastry into your tin one sheet at a time, brushing each sheet with melted ghee.
Sprinkle half of the pistachio and walnut mixture evenly over the top.
Layer another 150g of filo, again brushing between each layer with ghee.
Sprinkle the remaining nut mixture on top.
Layer the final sheets of filo and brush well with ghee.
Carefully cut shapes into the baklava.
Each group should, wearing heatproof gloves, carefully place the baklava in the oven, with an adult volunteer to help. It should bake in a preheated at 180C for 20–25 minutes, until it’s golden brown.

Making the syrup

While it’s baking, put the honey, orange blossom water, sugar and water into a pan and bring to a simmer for two minutes.
An adult volunteer should take the pan off the heat source using heatproof gloves, then place it on a heatproof service, away from young people.
An adult volunteer should transfer the syrup into a heatproof jug for young people to use to pour the syrup onto the baklava.

Bringing everything together

When ready, an adult volunteer should wear heatproof gloves and carefully remove the scones from the oven and place the tray on a heatproof surface, away from young people.
With adult supervision, pour the syrup over the cooked baklava.
Allow the baklava cool to room temperature before serving, then try tasting it.

To watch in full screen, double click the video

Reflection

This activity was a great introduction to baking and was hopefully lots of fun, while also developing your kitchen skills.   

Has anyone had a baklava before? What was it like to make them? Was it how you expected?

Cooking and baking often involves lots of teamwork. Did you work well as a team? How did you make sure everyone got to take part?

Kitchens can be dangerous places. When cooking in the kitchen, how did you keep yourself and each other safe while you were cooking? 

This activity was also a chance to learn about Islam. What can you remember? Were there similarities between the five pillars of Islam and your own values or attitudes?

One of the Scouts values is beliefs. Scouts always respect people’s beliefs, faiths and cultures, and everyone should be open to learn. Ask everyone why it’s important for people to learn about each other's faiths and beliefs, even if we don’t have a faith ourselves. Tell everyone that part of being a global citizen, as well as being a Scout, is learning about different faiths, cultures and beliefs and identifying the things people have in common.

Explain that if people don’t have a faith, that’s OK. They might have beliefs, values or a shared community, like in Scouts where we have shared values of integrity, respect, care, cooperation and belief. Whether you’ve a faith or not, what are your most important values or beliefs? For example, you may believe in kindness or value honesty and compassion.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Food: Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.
Sharp objects: Teach young people how to use sharp objects safely. Supervise them appropriately throughout. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.
Cooking: Teach young people how to use cooking equipment safely. Supervise them appropriately throughout. Make sure it’s safe to use and follow manufacturers’ guidelines for use.

Remember to check your ingredients against any allergy or dietary requirements to ensure everyone can enjoy the recipe. This may mean using alternative ingredients.

There are lots of different jobs that need doing when planning, making and cooking on a kitchen. People can work in small groups or as a whole group, depending on what will work best for your group. There’s a role for everyone, so encourage everyone to be involved in a way that works for them. Remind everyone it’s OK for people take different roles in this activity. Everyone should choose a task that suits them, with people helping with tasks that others may struggle more with. Some people may choose to read the weighing scale, lift and carry the ingredients or equipment, read the instructions, or stir, chop, or pour the mixture.

If anyone needs help or struggles with fine motor skills, give them the opportunity to work in pairs with another young person, with a young leader or an adult volunteer. They could use larger materials. You could swap out the items for something easier to handle.

Make sure the objects are placed in areas accessible for everyone in the group and all the materials are at a level that can be easily worked on by wheelchair users.

You could have print-outs of the recipe, including large print versions, to help everyone follow the instructions.

There are lots of loud noises and different smells in a kitchen or while cooking, which may overwhelm some people. People may choose to wear ear defenders while in the kitchen, take a break from the activity or prefer to stay a distance away from the activity and that’s OK. You could use fragrance free soap or washing up liquid or have items pre-chopped to reduce noise. You might also want to keep any blending, electric whisks or noisier equipment to being used in one room and shut the door, so people have an option to step out if it’s too loud.

Be conscious about who may be fasting when running this activity – you may want to plan it for when everyone can get involved.

Some people may not like certain food textures or tastes and that’s OK. Try to find an alternative for them. No-one has to use all the ingredients or be made to try foods if they’re not happy, comfortable or don’t want to, and no-one should be forced to try a food when they don’t want to.

Remember, some baking and cooking activities can be done either sitting or standing – people can choose whichever way is best for them. People could work with a partner, with one taking on any standing tasks and the other doing tasks seated.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.