Perfectly toasted English muffins get topped with an extra thick, extra chunky crispy-chewy nutty sugary topping. Absolutely heavenly and works for breakfast, snack, or as an after-dinner treat.
English Muffin Baklava
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Wow! Yum yum yum! I made these for a girls night and everyone raves about them! Pretty easy to make and just so delicious . So fun to bring to parties and they don’t need to be served hot! Will definitely be making again! Thanks!!!
Brittany L
Yes, it seems weird, but toasted English muffins loaded with a pistachio-walnut-butter-brown-sugar mixture and broiled to caramelized perfection is straight from the heavens. Add a little mascarpone cheese, a little drizzle of honey, and this is my breakfast (snack? dessert?) lifestyle right now.
English Muffin Baklava
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Lindsay’s Notes
I saw this idea in a Taste of Home magazine that my mother-in-law gave me and I basically turned around and made it five minutes later. It’s one of those recipes where you go, “Hey, that’s a good idea! And I have everything I need!” Which means you can make it fast, and repeatedly. Which is exactly what I did – correction – still am doing.
You toast your English muffins, stir up your nuts and butter and brown sugar, top it all with the mascarpone cheese and honey… and now this is just how we live. WHAT IN THE WORLD! It’s so delightful. Nutty, buttery, crunchy, and slightly caramelized but also has a creamy sauciness from the melty mascarpone and honey. All on the exceptionally textured, crispy-chewy surface of an English muffin.
It’s a perfect breakfast, afternoon coffee break snack, or after-dinner dessert. Love it for all of the above.
I made a few changes to the recipe as it was in the magazine – for example, I toasted my English muffins before and after adding the nut mixture. I used a higher nut-to-butter ratio to make sure that the nut layer was extra thick and chunky, and I changed the serving size to 3 pieces. Do we approve?
Mascarpone is not a normal ingredient in baklava so I was a little skeptical of how that would play here, but it was awesome. You don’t need much more buttery-ness with the nuts and butter already in there, but having a creamy element helped to tone down some of the sweetness of the nut filling and the honey drizzle. It was just heavenly to bite into.
How To Make This Little Delight
Step 1:
Mix up some softened butter, ground up pistachios, walnuts, and brown sugar.
Step 2:
Toast your English muffins under the broiler.
Then spread them with the nut mixture and return to the broiler for one more minute until bubbly and slightly set. Watch them carefully because they will burn!
Step 3:
Top with mascarpone cheese, honey, and more nuts! So amazing.
Watch How To Make This Recipe
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English Muffin Baklava
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: Nut mixture makes enough for 2-3 servings
Description
Perfectly toasted English muffins get topped with an extra thick, extra chunky crispy-chewy nutty sugary topping. Absolutely heavenly and works for breakfast, snack, or as an after-dinner treat.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Pistachio Walnut Mixture:
- 1/3 cup walnuts
- 1/3 cup pistachios
- 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) butter, softened or melted
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
Other:
- English muffins
- Honey
- Mascarpone cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the broiler – I use the “Low Broil” setting but every oven will be different for which setting works best.
- Pulse the nuts in a food processor until finely chopped. Set aside a few spoonfuls of the nuts for topping. Mix the remaining nuts, butter, and brown sugar together in a small bowl.
- Toast the English muffins on a baking sheet lined with foil until toasty – about 3 minutes.
- Spread English muffins with the nutty butter mixture. Return to the oven, a few inches away from the broiler, for 1 minute or until bubbly and slightly caramelized.
- Top with a little baby dollop of mascarpone cheese and give it a gentle swoop to melt it in. Finish with extra nuts and honey. Pour yourself a cup of coffee to go with it. OMG, it’s so good!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Broil
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern-Inspired
Keywords: baklava english muffin, baklava on english muffin, english muffin snack
Frequently Asked Questions For English Muffin Baklava
What can I use instead of English muffins?
You could easily make this on any kind of toasted bread – or maybe even crackers?! Yum!
How long does the nut topping last?
I usually make it all at once, but the nut mixture should last a day or two in the fridge – the texture might just change a little as the nuts soften.
How do you make this gluten-free and/or dairy-free?
Use a gluten-free English muffin for a gluten-free version! Use dairy-free butter and skip the mascarpone cheese for a dairy-free version.
Can you make this without a broiler?
A kitchen torch might be a bit intense for a little snack like this, but it would definitely work to toast and caramelize the topping! A toaster oven would also work great.
What makes this like baklava?
The use of pistachios and walnuts, butter, and honey gives it a texture and a flavor that is reminiscent of baklava! Not the same thing by any means – baklava is a very involved, multi-layered, multi-textured dessert made with phyllo (it’s epic). But this is like the budget version for those of us who just want the taste of it in a quick breakfast or snack. 🙂
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Filed Under: All Recipes Breakfast Desserts Fall Quick and Easy Recipes Snacks Spring Summer Vegetarian Winter
September 5, 2023
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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Looks delish! What could I use as a substitute for the pistachios?
You could add in more walnuts!
I love shelled pistachios 🙂
Looks really good and easy to make. Do we need to add the mascarpone cheese, or is there something to substitute it?
TIA!
You can skip it if you prefer!
Please help me understand – is one serving one whole English muffin, or half of one? It just says English muffins in the ingredient list – did I miss seeing the numbers? Hope to hear from you soon so I can put this on my breakfast list- thanks!
Hi there! One serving would be one whole English muffin or two halves. Hope this helps!
I think that’s an excellent idea that you took this idea from a magazine and made it your reality, then blogged about it. That right there is motivation for aspiring and current bloggers to get on the bandwagon and start blogging about food or something dear to their heart. Great job again in this blog, Lindsay. 🙂
Holy cow! I just tried this for breakfast/brunch today! Absolutely delicious and so simple! Great recipe
Okay, right now I feel too busy to open emails with new recipes because, I have soooooo many recipes!!! Collecting them since the late 1980s and everything. Starting a new intense job. —But I opened the email because, welll, I love your writing. And you had me at this first one!! I love baklava even though honestly I’m kind of meh on phyllo. AND I hate actually baking with phyllo! So it’s a rare treat. But THISS. THIS may be my new favorite indulgent breakfast treat. In front of the wood stove this winter with my sweetie and some serious excellent coffee? BLISS. Thank you for an idea whose time had come.
I used unsalted butter and raw nuts, and no marscapone, so I added a little salt (and a touch of orange blossom water). It was perfect! Served with some soft boiled eggs for a very nice breakfast. I think it would also scale well for a brunch event, since they could all be broiled at once.
So good! I added a tiny bit of ground cardamom and it was perfect for me. Looking forward to pulling the extra nut mixture out of the fridge and having more for breakfast this week!
Had these for breakfast this morning! Easy and delicious and different.
I made these for Sunday morning breakfast and they were easy and delicious but quite rich. The two of us were stuffed. I was thinking that next time I would use 1/4 cup of each nut, 3 Tbsp butter, and 1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar, and just put them on two English muffins. I used spreadable cream cheese instead of the mascarpone and that worked fine. Thanks for this great recipe!
Looks really good and easy to make. Do we need to add the mascarpone cheese, or is there something to substitute it google
Looks really good and easy to make. Do we need to add the mascarpone cheese, or is there something to substitute it? https://pinchofyum.com/english-muffin-baklava#comment-938555
We don’t have a good sub for the mascarpone cheese in this case, so you could omit it altogether.
Please help me understand – is one serving one whole English muffin, or half of one? https://pinchofyum.com/english-muffin-baklava#comment-938556
1 full English muffin. 😊
you can’t get enough of walnuts
This was so delicious!
Wow! Yum yum yum! I made these for a girls night and everyone raves about them! Pretty easy to make and just so delicious . So fun to bring to parties and they don’t need to be served hot! Will definitely be making again! Thanks!!!
This is very tasty! It’s exponentially good compared to how easy it is to make.
The easiest, most delectable thing. I’m sharing with all of my friends 😋🤤
ooh i bet this would be fantastic in the airfryer !
Wow, English Muffin Baklava sounds like a unique and delightful twist on a classic dessert! I love the idea of combining the rich, honeyed layers of traditional baklava with the soft, nooks and crannies of an English muffin. The contrast of textures and flavors must be absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to try this recipe and share it with my friends and family. It’s the perfect fusion of Mediterranean and British cuisine, and I’m sure it will be a hit at any brunch or tea party. Thanks for sharing this creative and mouthwatering recipe!
This has become one of our favorite evening desserts after putting our kids to bed! We don’t typically have pistachios (due to cost), so I often double up on the walnuts (2/3 cup), and halve both the butter and brown sugar (health reasons). Definitely a winner over here! Thanks for sharing this unique recipe!
This recipe is seriously one of the top 10 things I’ve ever made and I’ve been cooking for 30 years. It’s crunchy, creamy, salty, slightly sweet, nutty & absolutely delicious. All the textures and flavors combine very well to make this SO SO satisfying! Baklava is delicious but pretty much a dessert item and sometimes REALLY sweet. These English muffins can be dessert, snack, bfast, u name it. Will make again and again.
This is a delicious and easy to make breakfast, snack or dessert.
DIVINE.