Baklava
Ready In: 1 hr 45 mins
Serves: 16
Yields: 1 cake
Ingredients
- 9 phyllo pastry sheets (from a 1-pound package look in the frozen section at the local grocery)
- 1 cup walnuts (finely chopped the finer the better)
- 1⁄2 cup unsalted butter (melted)
- 1 cup honey syrup (see below)
Honey Syrup
- 2 2⁄3 cups sugar
- 2 cups water
- rind of one lemon
- 3 cloves
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 1 lb honey (of the darkest honey you can find)
- 5 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 1⁄2 tablespoons brandy
Directions
- Place an 8" round cake pan on a stack of sheets, and use as a template to make phyllo circles. You can get one entire circle, and one half-circle, from each stack of sheets. Use as much phyllo as possible.
- Butter cake pan, preheat oven to 350.
- Create six layers of phyllo, and brush each layer with butter.
- Create fifteen layers of phyllo-butter-1 TBSP walnuts on top of the above.
- Create six more layers of phyllo brushed with butter on top of the above.
- Score top approximately 1/2" deep, to form 16 triangles.
- Bake for 45 minutes, until it reaches a golden brown.
- Pour honey syrup on top of pastry, slice through the remaining layers of phyllo, and allow to cool several hours before serving.
- Honey Syrup:This is the honey syrup for the Baklava. You can store the extra syrup in the refridgerator until needed.
- Combine first five ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until it thickens slightly (approximately 10-15 minutes).
- Strain out rind and spices. Stir in honey, lemon juice, and brandy. Cool.
- Use for pastries.
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