Baklava

So I made Baklava for the Superbowl pot luck at work recently. I used the recipe off of a AllRecipes.

I will include the recipe here for the sake of completeness.

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough
• 1 pound chopped nuts
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup honey

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C). Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9×13 inch pan.
2. Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 – 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 – 8 sheets deep.
3. Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows the make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.
4. Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
5. Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers. This freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.

I came out pretty good as you can see.

So all that being said, I was able to take away a few things from this experience. It had been my first time working with phyllo dough that was interesting. I wish I had read BEFORE I attempted to un-roll that it needs to be thawed out.

After it was all said and done, it took about one hour of prep time, one hour to assemble and one hour to bake.

While everybody said that they liked it, some people did have a few suggestions. I’ve already got some improvements for next time.

1. Prep while dough is thawing out.

2. Chop nuts smaller

3. Less cinnamon

4. Instead of 1 cup water / sugar, I might due 1.25 cups of each.

I can’t wait to make this again.

peace.
-alex