Baklava
A while ago, fellow blogger Augustus Gloop, of Grab Your Fork, did a post on Rabieh Sweets. When I commented on the delicious looking baklava, I offered to provide her with a recipe if she wanted one. Well, that was more than two months ago, and I still haven't given her the recipe. Call it procrastination, call it Hawaiian time, call it whatever you want...I'M LATE!
OK, now that I got that out of my system, here's the recipe, in all its simplicity.
Baklava (makes 24 or more)
1 package phyllo sheets (1 pound size)
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup superfine sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinammon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 blocks unsalted butter, melted
Glaze
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey, optional *see note below
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
**NOTE**
- If phyllo is purchased frozen, follow instructions on the box to defrost.
- Cover the unused sheets with a layer of plastic wrap and a damp tea towel to keep them from drying out.
- The amount of glaze used can be increased as necessary.
- Hand chopping of the nuts is recommended so that the nuts don't release too much oil.
One word of caution. If you do use honey in the glaze, it does become very thick and tacky. Therefore, if you do not want the glaze to form "pools" on top of your baklava, omit the honey from the glaze recipe.
Preheat oven to 350º F.
Prepare the dry ingredients first. Combine chopped walnuts, sugar, cinammon and nutmeg in a bowl and whisk until well combined. Set aside.
Melt butter and set aside.
Gently remove phyllo sheets from the box and spread out on a cutting board. Cut the sheets in half crosswise. For example, the sheets that I purchased were 13" x 17". I cut them into 13" x 8.5" pieces.
Butter a 13" x 9" baking dish and lay first phyllo sheet on the bottom of the dish. Brush phyllo sheet generously with butter. Continue layering in this manner until you have used 10 sheets. Take one third of the sugar/nut mixture and spread over the top of the phyllo sheet. Repeat the layering process so that you end up with four layers of phyllo and three layers of sugar/nuts. The top layer will be the thickest as you will use up whatever phyllo sheets are left (I ended with about 15 sheets).
Cut the baklava into diamonds (I will normally cut the baklava into 12 - 16 rectangles first, then cut diagonally to create the diamond shape). Then bake uncovered for approximately 45 - 55 minutes until golden brown.
While the baklava is baking, prepare the glaze. Combine the water, sugar and honey in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and continue to cook until thick and syrup-y. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
When baklava is done, remove from oven and let stand for about 10 minutes. Pour glaze over baklava and allow to cool completely (at least a couple of hours). Here it is at rest.
Remove from pan and store in an air tight container. DO NOT REFRIGERATE. Keeps for approximately one week. Most likely, though, it'll be gone before it even makes it to the storage container! ENJOY!
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