The Greek dessert made of layers of phyllo, chopped nuts, and honey syrup is baklava. Its defining structure is crisp, paper-thin pastry layered with butter or oil, a nut filling, and a sweet syrup poured over the baked dessert.
Greek baklava commonly uses walnuts, though almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, or mixtures may appear. The syrup can include honey, sugar, lemon or orange zest, cinnamon, and sometimes rosewater or orange-blossom water. It is usually cut into diamonds, rectangles, triangles, or other neat portions before or after baking.
Baklava is not exclusively Greek, and its ultimate origin is disputed. Proposed ancestors include the ancient Greco-Roman placenta, Byzantine layered pastries, medieval Arabic sweets, and Central Asian Turkic pastry traditions. The modern form is widely associated with Ottoman cuisine and spread across southeastern Europe, West Asia, and North Africa.
Revani is a syrup-soaked semolina cake, galaktoboureko contains custard, and kataifi uses shredded pastry, so none matches the standard layered-phyllo definition as closely as baklava.