Nightingale’s nest/BÜLBÜL YUVASI is a type of baklava made with phyllo pastry and pistachios which are bite sized and absolutely delicious.
Ever since I saw these cute little bite sized baklava coins in Pinterest, I was itching to try them. But making phyllo pastry sounded like an extremely intensive work, so I didn’t try. Then when I got a batch of readymade phyllo pastry, I made the cardamom cake cups first. My next project was to make these cute nightingale’s nest.

How to use frozen phyllo/ filo pastry for making the nightingale’s nest
You get phyllo pastry as frozen in many super markets. Here is how to use them. Phyllo pastry is extremely thin and so will easily tear. They also dry out pretty fast. So you need to follow set of instructions while using them. Let me list them out in order.
Always thaw the pastry for 24 hours in fridge. Do not thaw them at room temperature. The sudden condensation will make the sheets stick together.
Once it is thawed, remove it out of fridge and use immediately. Before opening the package, keep some towels ready. Remove the required quantity of sheets and place them between towels so that they don’t dry out.
Be gentle while removing individual sheets. They tend to stick at the sides. But gentle peeling will help removing them without any damage. Dried out sheets will lose flexibility and will crack easily.
Use a pastry brush to brush the layers with butter or melted ghee, whichever the recipe asks for.

When arranging these nests/ coins, make sure to keep them crowded. This will keep the shape of the nest intact. Two of mine recoiled back a little as they were not placed properly. Applying a coat of butter on the arranged pastries will make them extra crisp.

BÜLBÜL YUVASI – Making the syrup
The sugar syrup is one of the most important part of the recipe. We are not looking for any sugar syrup consistency, but the syrup needs to be thicker. If it is thin, it would make the nests soggy and soft. Correct consistency of syrup will ensure that the pastries stay crisp always. Follow the recipe exactly and there won’t be a problem.

Letting the pastries rest for a minimum one hour will also give you perfect results. When very fresh, the syrup won’t have time to steep into the pastry. A perfect pastry will be crisp and flaky and will also have soft interior but not soggy at all.

Nightingale’s nest Demonstration
I also made a small video to post in Instagram. Check it out and if you are not yet following my account, do it. I always share my day to day baking experiments there.
If you are new to using phyllo pastry sheets, then here is a small video to help you with basic details. Let me know if you find this useful! This will help you making the nightingale’s nest pastry.
Phyllo Cardamom Cake Cups – Click on image for recipe


Nightingale’s Nest /BÜLBÜL YUVASI
Ingredients
- 10 no Phyllo Pastry Sheets
- 100 ml Ghee Melted
- 50 gm Pistachios powdered
- 100 gm Sugar
- 100 gm Water
- 3 drops Rose Essence
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Take a pastry sheet and apply melted ghee on half the portion.
- Sprinkle powdered pistachios and fold the sheet.
- Now apply melted ghee on top of the pastry sheet.
- Cut the sheet into two equal portions.
- With the help of a dowel rod, roll the sheet from the smaller side leaving 0.5 cm at the end.
- Holding both ends of the rolled sheet, squeeze it to gather it into tiny pleats on the dowel.
- Remove the dowel and bring both ends together to form a circle, leaving the extra 0.5 com pastry in the centre.
- Arrange all the pastries in a baking tray. Press them together so that they don’t open up while baking.
- Apply melted ghee on top of the pastries.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry if nicely browned.
- By the time the pastry is baking, let us make the sugar syrup.
- Mix together sugar and water and bring to boil.
- Once it starts boiling, reduce flame and boil it for 4-5 minutes.
- Remove from flame and set aside.
- Once the pastry is out of oven, pour the syrup immediately on top of the pastries.
- Add some powdered pistachios in the centre of each pastry.
- Allow them to cool completely. The syrup will be absorbed by all the pastries.
- Let them air dry for thirty minutes before storing them in air tight box.