Baklava

Baklava is one of my favorite desserts. It’s something to be savored slowly and best enjoyed with tea or coffee. It’s so sweet you only need one teensy-weensy slice and you’ll be contented.

Some say it originated from Turkey while some say it’s from Greece. Wiki said that Baklava has been enjoyed as early as the time of the Ottoman Empire. How cool is that? Doesn’t matter where it originated, it’s still in my top ten best desserts of all time.


I’ve first tasted baklava from Anatolia Cuisine at the Salcedo Market a few years back. I’m a cake person, I don’t really crave for pies, puff pastry based desserts but when I tasted Baklava for the first time, I knew I was a convert.

Everytime I buy from Anatolia’s, I try to dissect how they did the pastry. At first glance it looks so intimidating and screams hard work and besides, where can I find phyllo pastry in Manila? I don’t have a slightest clue. So I’ve put of making baklava at the back of my mind. Until I noticed that Landmark is selling the elusive phyllo pastry after all! Baklava is so in my list of desserts to try

For my first try, I watched YouTube videos of how to do it exactly then looked for the best recipe in Recipezaar. After memorizing the procedure and the mise en place I started making my first baklava.

I’ve cut the recipe in half. It seems that the recipe will create a tall Baklava so I’ve cut the recipe in half. I want my baklava to be short and stout (like that tea pot in an old nursery rhyme). Instead of half a pound of phyllo sheets, I used the whole box which is 375 grams. I’m hoping adding more phyllo sheets in the recipe would somehow make the Baklava crispier. Also, instead of waiting for the eighth sheet to be buttered before putting in a batch of ground nuts, I just buttered three sheets, put in a layer of nuts, then buttered three sheets again, then nuts, you get picture… basically until I ran out of phyllo and nuts to use. But make sure the last layer is phyllo okay?

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Baklava
By: evelyn/athens
Recipe#: 59863
1¾ hours 40 min prep


Syrup
2 cups honey
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
lemon peel (without pith - 4 inch-long piece)
orange peel (without pith - 4 inch-long piece)

Pastry
4 cups coarsley ground walnuts
2 cups coarsley ground almonds
4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 lb phyllo dough
1 lb unsalted butter, melted (don't use less, this is what will make your baklava taste exceptional, and it has to be BUTTER!)
whole cloves

Directions

1 Make syrup first so that it can come to room temperature: In a small saucepan, combine honey, sugar and water. Bring to a slow boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Add lemon juice, cinnamon sticks and peels and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, until slightly thickened. Remove peels and cinnamon sticks and allow to come to room temperature before using.

2 Combine walnuts, almonds, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and 3 tablespoons melted butter together in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

3 Place phyllo between sheets of waxed paper and cover with a slightly damp towel to prevent phyllo from drying out. Brush bottom and sides of an 18x12-inch inch pan generously with melted butter.

4 Place 8 phyllo sheets into bottom of pan, brushing each sheet generously with butter. Take an additional 4 sheets of phyllo and place in pan allowing sheets to drape over each of the 4 sides of pan. Brush these with melted butter.

5 Spread 2 cups of nut mixture into pan, distributing evenly over bottom. Fold over the overlapping phyllo sheets brushing each with butter, to envelop the nut mixture.
6 Repeat layering process 2 more times to form 3 nut layers.

7 Top pastry with remaining phyllo dough and generously brush top layer with melted butter. Tuck in the buttered phyllo neatly around.

8 Score through top layers of pastry with a sharp knife making 6 strips lengthwise then cut 10 strips diagonally to form diamond shaped pieces. Stud each diamond-shaped piece (and any odd looking ones near the ends of the pan) in the centre with a whole clove per piece. Pour remaining melted butter over pastry and lightly sprinkle some water on top too (wet your hand under the tap twice and shake this out over the pastry).

9 Bake pastry in a 325°F oven for 1 hour, until nicely golden-brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Carefully spoon cool syrup over pastry. Allow to stand at least 3 hours or overnight. Cut through the scored pieces and serve.
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Since I’ve cut the recipe in half, the baking time has also been shortened. The whole thing was done in 30 minutes. I waited for 10 minutes for it to cool down a little before adding the syrup.

The recipe is good. The baklava is sooo sinful. After the three hour waiting period, I just have to sample it. One small square doesn’t seem to be good enough but eating another one makes me feel so guilty! But what the heck, I still ate another one and I still craved for more. I can’t seem to help myself!

This is a kind of dessert that gets better and better as the days go by, much like wine (but that one takes years!). If you plan to serve it on a Saturday, make it the Wednesday before so the flavors could marry.

If I won’t be out of town this weekend, I’ll definitely head straight to the grocery and buy as much phyllo pasty boxes as I can!

Happy cupcaking!

Aikko