Baklava

If you've never had baklava... I feel sorry for you! It's a Greek dessert made from layers of flaky phyllo dough and a filling made from chopped nuts, sugar, and cinnamon. The final product is then soaked in a simple syrup overnight. Yum! I know you must be sick and tired of phyllo pastries by now, but this is the last one! I promise! It's just that so much dough comes in one box and once you thaw it out, you have to use it. Not that I'm complaining because I love Greek food!

Baklava

Makes: 24 servings

Filling:

16 oz walnuts

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

Dough:

30 sheets of phyllo dough, thawed

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted

Syrup:

1 1/4 cups water

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup honey

• First make the filling. Grind up the walnuts in a food processor until they are very fine, almost a powder.
• Transfer the ground walnuts to a large mixing bowl. Mix in the brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
• With a pastry brush, butter the bottom and edges of a 13" x 9" baking pan.
• Lay down a sheet of phyllo dough in the bottom of the pan. Gently brush the dough with some butter. Continue until you have six sheets of phyllo dough stacked on top of each other, with butter brushed on each one, including the top one. This will make a nice thick bottom layer.
• Now sprinkle in about 3/4 cup of the nut mixture over the buttered phyllo dough.
• Place another three sheets of phyllo dough over the nuts, again buttering each layer, ending with butter on top. Continue this step until you have used all of the nuts. You'll probably get around five or six layers of nuts.
• For the top layer, you will again use six sheets of phyllo dough, buttering each one, ending with butter on the top.
• With a very sharp knife, cut the baklava into squares, then cut each square on the diagonal like so:

• Bake at 350° F for 45 minutes.
• While the baklava is baking, make the syrup. Combine the water, sugar, and honey in a medium sauce pan. Cook over medium high heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture starts bubbling. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes until it gets a little bit thick and syrupy. Be cautious not to overcook this or you'll burn the sugar. If you notice the color of the syrup turning darker at all, remove it from the heat immediately to prevent burning. Also, make sure you're using a wooden spoon to stir this. Anything else will melt from the heat of the syrup.
• Once the syrup is cooked, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool. Be very careful as this syrup is extremely hot and can cause very bad burns.
• Once the baklava is finished cooking, remove it from the oven. Immediately pour the cooled syrup over the entire pan of baklava. At first it will look like the pastry is floating in a pool of syrup. But don't worry, it will all be absorbed.
• Allow the baklava to cool. Cover it and allow it to sit at room temperature overnight. The next day, most of the syrup will be absorbed and the baklava will be delicate, flaky, and slightly sticky. At this point, you may find that you need to re-cut it. Just go over the same lines you made previously using a sharp knife.
• Enjoy!