Baklava bitch!

Bak la freaking va! Another shout out to Kevin for such a wonderfully good recipe. This turned out almost perfect. I used pecans in place of walnuts and halved the recipe. When all was said and done, when J, Z, and I had all patiently waited the “few” hours for the syrup to absorb (we actually couldn’t wait more than 2 hours, oops.), the reaction was unanimous. We couldn’t believe this came out of our oven in our home. This was equal to any baklava I had gotten from any restaurant before. Love love love it! Fairly simple recipe other than the nearly impossible wait time at the end.

Baklava

Makes 9 servings, I ate 3. Recipe below is half the original. Something I usually do with desserts which tend make way to much for a small family.

Ingredients
2 c. pecans, chopped
1/4 c. sugar
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 lb. phyllo pastry, thawed
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. sugar
1 stick cinnamon
1 inch slice lemon peel
1 inch slice orange peel
1/2 c. honey
Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix the pecans, sugar (I use unrefined raw sugar which sometimes won’t melt in the oven so I put it in the blender for a second first to make it a fine powder) and cinnamon in a blender or food processor and chop it up small unless you like the bigger chunks of nuts, if so just chop to your liking. Brush the bottom of a 8X8 inch pan with butter. Brush butter onto the top of a sheet of the phyllo dough and place the sheet into the pan. Repeat until there are 8 sheets in the pan. Sprinkle 1/3 of the pecan mixture onto the phyllo in the pan. Brush butter onto the top of a sheet of the phyllo dough and place the sheet into the pan. Repeat until there are 2 sheets on top of the nut mixture. Sprinkle 1/3 of the pecan mixture onto the phyllo in the pan. Brush butter onto the top of a sheet of the phyllo dough and place the sheet into the pan. Repeat until there are 2 sheets on top of the nut mixture. Sprinkle 1/3 of the nut mixture onto the phyllo in the pan.Brush butter onto the top of a sheet of the phyllo dough and place the sheet into the pan. Repeat until there are 8 sheets on top of the nut mixture.

Slice the baklava with a sharp knife. Bake until golden brown on top, about 20-30 minutes. Bring the water, sugar, cinnamon, lemon and orange to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the honey and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the cinnamon, and peals from the syrup. Pour the syrup over the baklava when it comes out of the oven. Let the baklava cool for a few hours to allow for the syrup to fully absorb.

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