I always thought that making baklava was hard. Well, it looked really hard.
We have Netflix and there is a channel just for recipes. They had lots of step by step recipes and one of them was Baklava.
I didn’t go exactly by the recipe so this is a loose interpretation of it. I got the jest of it though. The trick is to use a damp towel and keep the dough moist. Yeah and lots and lots of melted butter brushed over everything.
I have seen where rosewater is used. I looked but couldn’t find it anywhere. I also saw recipes where they just used the Karo syrup. Although it is cheaper not to use honey, I think it tastes so much better. The recipe called for walnuts and I used pecans. I guess any nut will do.
This was labor intensive but nothing hard about it. It is all in the layering. I also think that you need good ingredients. Take your time and make sure you have everything at the ready before you start to layer everything. The dough will dry out and become brittle if you don’t keep a damp cloth on it when you are not layering. I made that mistake with the first batch. It tasted good, but not very pretty so live and learn.
Baklavah
Ingredients:
1 pound frozen phyllo sheets
1 cup butter melted
2 cups pecans
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Thaw phyllo pastry in the refrigerator overnight. Place a damp towel over top of it to keep them from drying out while you work with it. Place 6 pastry sheets in a large greased baking pan, one by one, brushing with melted butter as you go.
In a medium bowl combine nuts, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Sprinkle half the mixture over the buttered pastry. Continue layering 6 sheets, brushing each with melted butter. Add the other half of the nut mixture. Layer remaining phyllo sheets brushing each sheet. Cut Baklava pastry into 2 inch diamonds. bake 40-50 minutes or until golden and crisp. Meanwhile in a saucepan, combine the water and sugar. Bring to a boil for about 5 minutes. Add the honey and continue to boil for 5 more minutes stirring occasionally. Pour over warm Baklava and allow to cool before serving.
Peace be with you,
Veronica
