Fragrant almond meal, citrus and rosewater roll up

Filled with a mix of nut meal, lemon and orange zest, rose petals and rosewater, this golden filo pastry is a wonderful dessert, or a sweet bite to serve with tea or coffee.

Fragrant almond meal, citrus and rosewater roll up. Credit: Freshly Picked with Simon Toohey

• serves

  8

• prep

  40 minutes

• cook

  40 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 140 g cultured plant-based butter, at room temperature
• 220 g caster sugar
• 80 g plain flour
• 10 g cornflour
• 160 ml oat milk
• 350 g almond meal (or a mixture of almond meal and hazelnut meal)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 orange, zested (and some juice on standby)
• 1 lemon, zest only
• ½ cup roughly chopped pistachios
• 2 tbsp rosewater
• 1 packet filo pastry sheets (you will need about six sheets), at room temperature (keep covered so they don’t dry out)
• 4 tbsp dried edible rose petals, plus extra to decorate
• ½ cup olive oil

To serve

• Icing sugar
• 2 tbsp pistachios

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Add the butter and sugar to a bowl and mix together until combined. Add flours and mix in and then mix in the oat milk. Add the almond meal, baking powder and vanilla and mix all to a paste. Add the orange and lemon zest, the chopped pistachios, rose petals and rose water. Mix to a thick but pliable paste (if the mixture is too dry add a little orange juice) and set aside.
3. Clear a long bench, the longest you have. Place a square sheet of filo on the bench, brush a little oil over about one-third of the sheet, then lay another sheet on top, overlapping the oiled area. Repeat with more sheets, overlapping the oiled last ⅓ of the previous sheet. Then once you have a long flat sheet, lightly paint over the sheets with a small amount of oil. (If any sheets tear badly while you are creating the sheet you can place another sheet or half sheet over any tear in the pastry.)
4. Place big tablespoons of the filling mixture about 7.5 cm from the bottom of the pastry (that is, along the long edge closest to you) and keep doing this following the line along the length of the pastry. When all the mixture is used up, cut off any leftover pastry at the end of the long sheet. Join the mixture together where there are gaps with the back of a wet spoon, or your hands, to create one long line of filling all the way along the pastry sheet.
5. Taking the flap of pastry closest to you, start folding over the mixture all the way along and then come back continuing to roll the mixture like a sausage roll. Don’t worry if the pastry breaks a little. Finally, from 1 end, curl it on itself like a snake until it is one big round piece of pastry. 
6. Place on a baking tray, quickly brush with oil, then bake for 40 minutes or until golden and delicious.
7. Dust with icing sugar and garnish with rose petals and pistachios.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.