I love baklava. Though really, it’s much more fun it you pronounce it ‘baaaaklaaavaaaa.’ Go ahead, try it. Feels good doesn’t it? For me it is one of those foods that while available all year, speaks inexorably of the holiday season.
This year I finally got up the courage to make it from scratch. And, now that I’ve done it, I have to tell you, making baklava some scratch needs no courage at all. If you buy the phyllo dough it is very easy and very fun.
Before we get to the baking, let’s talk a little bit about baklava’s origins. A brief review of its history reveals that this sweet sticky treat may very well be one of history’s first party foods. After all, much of the evidence points toward the confection as Greek in origin. Though, Mesopotamia was inevitably involved as well. While the word baklava is Turkish in derivation, many culturally specific varieties exist from Greek to Turkish to Middle Eastern. In this sense, baklava truly is a celebratory food of the world.
While I prefer it made with pistachios, I actually used walnuts because I was hoping to limit my own consumption. Sadly, or happily, it didn’t work and I managed to consume more than my fair share of the pans I made.
Phyllo dough can be found in freezer section of any grocery store. The kind I bought fit perfectly into a 9X13” pan. So, I adapted the original recipe to fit.
I went ahead and defrosted the dough in the fridge over night. This yielded perfect results as the dough did not stick and was very easy to work with.
The spice base is a combination of cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Remember the Strawberry Shortcake dolls that smelled like fruits and spices? If I were one, I’d be Carly Cardamom.
For the first batch, I chopped the nuts myself. For the second, I busted out Bertha, my trusty food processor. There is no shame in technological progress. The chopped nuts, sugar and spices all get mixed together in a sort of exotic orgy of awesome smells and textures.
Each layer of phyllo dough is separated by a brushed-on layer of melted butter.
The sugar and nut mixture gets added in at regular intervals.
This goes on for about 20 or so layers until all the butter, nuts and dough have been utilized. Then, you cut the pieces into your desired shape and into the over goes the whole lot until everything is a nice golden brown.
While things are already looking really tasty, the best is yet to come. Right out of the oven, you pour a fantastic syrup of honey and spices right into the pan. By the time everything cools down, the syrup gets absorbed and the result is nothing short of a pastry worthy of whatever deity you happen to worship.
Baklava
Adapted from Epicurious, epicurious.com
Makes one pan 9X13″ pan
3 1/2 C chopped walnuts
1/2 C sugar
1 TSP ground cinnamon
1/2 TSP ground cardamom
1/4 TSP ground cloves
1/2 LB phyllo dough sheets
1.5 C melted butter
Syrup*
1 C sugar
1 C water
1/3 C honey
1/4 lemon, peel only
1 clove
* I substituted 1/4 C orange blossom water for 1/4 C of the water and did not use the lemon peel and clove.
To Make
1. Mix the walnuts, sugar and spices.
2. Remove phyllo dough from packaging, lay out flat and cover with plastic wrap and a damp towel (keep covered as dough will dry out quickly).
3. Melt the butter.
4. Starting with a single layer of phyllo, lay-out in pan and lightly brush butter over entire surface. Repeat this step until you have 8 layers in the pan.
5. Spread 1/3 of the nut mixture evenly across the 8th buttered layer of dough.
6. Add 4 more layers of phyllo, brushing each layer with butter.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until all of the nut mixture has been layered.
8. Top the last layer of the nut mixture with the remaining phyllo dough (should be about 8 layers).
9. Cut the pan into desired number and shape of pieces–but try not to cut through the bottom layer of phyllo.
10. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until the pastry is a deep golden brown.
11. While pastry is baking, make syrup. Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
12. Once the pastry is done, immediately pour hot syrup over the entire pan.
13. Allow to stand at room temp. until completely cooled and the syrup has been absorbed into the pastry.
14. Re-run knife through dough, this time cutting through to the bottom of the pan.
15. Serve, enjoy and try not to eat the entire pan!