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Baklava

Source of Recipe

Christy


Recipe Introduction

Note: I usually just toss all of the nuts and spices in the food processor to grind them up and mix them well together. If you have extra nut mixture you can freeze it in a ziplock bag. sometimes I've bought nuts in bulk and mixed up extra filling and frozen it for later batches to take advantage of sales on nuts.

List of Ingredients

1 pound butter (2 cups)
1 1/2 pounds walnuts ; ground
1 1/2 pounds almonds ; ground
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

SYRUP
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup honey
3 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 lemon ; squeezed

1 package phyllo dough, at room temperature


Recipe

Preheat oven to 355 degrees. Mix syrup ingredients in saucepan. Heat over medium heat, mixing well. Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until syrup bubbles and thickens. Allow to cool while preparing baklava.

Combine ground nuts with spices, and place in large bowl.

Melt butter in microwave. Unroll phyllo and cover with slightly dampened paper towel or tea towel to keep from drying out. In a cookie sheet, butter bottom of pan with a pastry brush. Lay one layer of phyllo and then brush top with melted butter. Repeat with 3 more layers of phyllo. Sprinkle some of nut mixture evenly over top of phyllo (should be very very thin layer).

Lay another sheet of phyllo over top of nuts and brush with butter; repeat with 3-4 more layers of phyllo. Sprinkle with more nuts. Repeat with 4-5 layers of phyllo, then top with more nuts. Lay another sheet of phyllo over top of nuts, brush with butter and repeat with remainder of phyllo. Brush top with butter. Using very sharp knife, carefully cut through all layers into small squares. Bake in oven for 40 minutes or until top is golden brown and puffed up.

Remove from oven. Using sharp knife, cut again thru the baklava so that cuts are clean and all the way through the layers. Carefully pour cooled syrup very slowly over top of baklava. (This is done most easily using pyrex measuring cup with a spout). Needs to be poured slowly so the pastry can absorb the syrup. Allow to sit for at least 1/2 hour so that syrup can start to be absorbed, prior to eating. Once syrup is absorbed, remove to tupperware container lined with waxed paper; layer waxed paper between layers of baklava for best storage.