HOW TO MAKE BAKLAWA / BAKLAVA with PHOTOS!!!

[Um Safia]

everyone,

here is the very first installment of NA*ME's newest feature... 'HOW TO MAKE ..... with PHOTOS'.

To start us off is Baklawa - made the traditional way we make it in Algeria. You'll find this is very similar to a lot of the Baklawa from other countries...

To make this Baklawa you'll need:

For the Dough:
4 (tall) glasses of plain flour
1 glass water
3/4 glass melted ghee and oil mixed - 1/2 ghee and 1/4 sunflower/veg. oil.
pinch salt



For the Filling:
3 glasses chopped nuts - use almonds, walnuts, pecans, peanuts or a mixture of your choice.
just over 3/4 glass of granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp vanilla sugar
2 tsp melted ghee
mazhar - approx 1/2 glass

For the Syrup:

2 - 3 glasses honey
3/4 -1 glass mazhar

*You need approx 1 extra glass of melted ghee to brush the pastry with and enough whole nuts to decorate each piece of baklawa. Also you'll need plenty of cornflour!*

Utensils:
1 large metal tray approx 30cm - 35cm
1 pasta machine
2 mixing bowls
1 large water glass - MINE HOLDS 6oz DRY INGREDIENTS & 310ml WET INGREDIENTS.
1 pastry brush
1 medium saucepan
1 rolling pin
1 food processor
1 large knife
2 tablespoons



baklawa tray/tin

[Um Safia]

1. Take 1 mixing bowl and place the flour & salt in it.



Add the ghee/oil mixture & mix, slowly adding the water.



Mix well...



until you have a smooth dough



place this on your work surface - well dusted with cornflour

[Um Safia]

2. Split the dough in half.



Make the first 1/2 into golf ball sized pieces.



Keep the dough covered with a tea towel...

3. Take a dough golf ball. If you are comfortable using the pasta machine then just make the ball into a sausage shape



and gently roll out with rolling pin to approx. 3-4mm.



Begin passing though pasta machine on thinnest setting.



NB : if this is your 1st time you can use the pasta machine on the 2nd to thinnest setting



before putting it through on the thinnest.

[Um Safia]

4. In you saucepan, melt your ghee on a medium heat.



5. Brush you tray well with ghee using the pastry brush



6. Lay you first strip of phyllo pastry vertically in the centre the tray. Brush the pastry with the ghee.

7. Repeat the dough rolling process. Cover the tray with phyllo, remembering to brush with ghee after each strip. You should be able to do this with 5 strips but don't worry if you use more or less When you're done it should look like this...

[Um Safia]

8. Turn the tray round so that you're placing the phyllo strips horizontally over vertcal strips. This criss cross is very important so don't forget...



Continue rolling your pastry and layering the tray. Remember the ghee after each strip..

9. Continue doing this until you have done 5 layers.

[Um Safia]

10. Prepare you nut filling. Take your food processor and chop up the nuts of your choice until you have the required amount.

11. Place the nuts in the 2nd mixing bowl and add the sugar, cinnamon, vanilla powder...



and mazhar - enough mazhar to make the filling hold but not so much that it's sloppy.



12. Place filling in the tray over the pastry, gently smoothing it



until you have this

[Um Safia]

13. You now need to repeat the dough rolling, layer making stage all over again until you have 6 layers. You will need to use the 2nd half of the dough by now - just make golf balls again! Don't forget the ghee





14. When you've finished the 5th layer you can choose how to do the top layer. I always roll out one large sheet by hand by other stick to the pasta machine as a large sheet of phyllo is a bit tricky to create and handle!

If you want to try rolling out a sheet, remember to COVER the dough, rollingpin, surface, your hands etc in LOADS of cornflour!



then roll out the the tray size plus 2cm extra.

[Um Safia]

15. Now you need to cut the baklawa and decorate.

Take you knife and cut vertical straight lines all the way to the bottom. (Approx. 2cm apart)



then spin the tray round and cut more lines but diagonally to form diamond shapes. You can also make squares or triangles but traditional Algerian baklawa are diamonds.



16. When you've cut the shapes, push a nut into each shape.

17. Brush well with the ghee and place in a pre-heated oven at 180 c for 1 hour - 1 hour 10 minutes...

[Um Safia]

18. The baklawa should be golden and now needs it syrup.



19. Warm the honey and mazhar in the saucepan then pour slowly over the baklawa.



20. Allow to sit for 10 minutes then cut out pieces and place in paper cases - preferably the metalic ones as they hold the syrup better.



Enjoy!

[Caroline Cooks]

I hope we can comment here...otherwise, sorry!
Excellent!!! I love Baklava and have only made it once, and not from scratch. You did such a great job!

[Um Safia]

Caroline Cooks wrote:
I hope we can comment here...otherwise, sorry!
Excellent!!! I love Baklava and have only made it once, and not from scratch. You did such a great job!

Hey there Caroline! Thanks for dropping by Feel free to comment, the thread is for discussion about the baklava as well as how to make it

Glad you enjoyed,

Rezika.

P.S. I'm always checking out the fab photos in your forum too!

[Elmotoo]

HOLY (BLEEP)!!!!! THAT was AMAZING!!!!

You made it look so easy! How do I get to your house?

WELL DONE!!

Bethie

[Chef Kate]

Fabulous presentation!! I think I may just try this now.

Thanks, Safia dear!

[Halalmom]

OMG, you even made the dough...

Simply wonderful, I'd like to have one right now, a glass of tea... Pure heaven!

(I will NOT show this to DH, or next time he'll insist on homemade-dough!)

Great job!

[ToadFairy]

Amazing, I'm in awe I don't think I could make something like this in my wildest dreams. You did a GREAT job