Baklava

I have loved Baklava ever since I was an undergraduate at Western and a professor, Dr. Zeine, made it for a NSSLHA bake sale.

When we went to Greece for our first anniversary, I had to try it in it's country of origin (according to the Greeks, if you're Turkish, then you might disagree).

Anyway, it's delicious and so easy to make.

Here is the recipe that I use and my tweaks to it:

Gretchen's Baklava Recipe
Make 12-24 hours ahead of time.
Can be made up to a week ahead, but the earliest I've made it is three days.

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Ingredients

For the filling:

1 lb Walnuts - Finely Chopped (I buy pre-chopped) 1/2 C. Sugar 2 tsp Cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground Cardamom 1/4 tsp ground Cloves (optional) For the Layers: 1.5 C. Butter (3 sticks), Melted 1 Package Frozen Phyllo Dough (16 oz) Thawed in refrigerator. For the Syrup: 1 C. Sugar 1 C. Water 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice (optional) 1 C. Honey (Net weight 12 oz.) 1/2 tsp Vanilla

The steps:

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1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Combine and set aside walnuts, 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon and cardamom
3. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the bottom and sides of a 10x14" (about 1-2" deep) pan with melted butter.**I use a kitchen-use-only spray bottle for the butter and it is so much faster**
4. Open the phyllo dough and layer 6 whole leafs (or 12 half leafs) in the pan, buttering each layer as you go. (The edges will extend over the side.)
5. Spread 1 cup of the walnut mixture.
6. If your phyllo dough comes in full sheets, cut the remaining phyllo dough in half.
7. Layer 8 half sheets -- butter each layer. Each sheet will be an inch or so short, so stagger the sheets from corner to corner to cover the whole pan. 
8. Spread 1 cup of the walnut mixture.
9. Repeat 8 sheets and walnut mixture twice. You will end up with 4 layers of nuts.
10. Layer the remaining half sheets on top -- butter each layer.
11. Brush/spray the top with the remaining butter.
12. Trim the edges off.
13. Cut halfway through the layers using the diagram to the right. This is done now since it will be very fragile after it's been baked.
14. Bake 1 hour or until golden brown.
15. 15 minutes before the baklava should be done, mix 1 cup sugar, water, and lemon juice in a sauce pan.
16. Cook sauce over a medium heat, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.
17. Remove from heat, add the honey and vanilla, and stir until well blended.
18. Remove the baklava from the oven and finish cutting through the layers.
19. Pour the sauce over the hot baklava.
20. Cool. Let it sit for close to 24 hours (lightly covered -- but not in the refrigerator) -- longer if you can stand it!

A nice way to serve individual pieces is to put each one into a muffin cup that has been partially flattened.
See Gretchen's baklava FAQ page for more tips on cutting. Truly, this is her recipe, I just added a few ingredients or cut a corner by combining a few other recipes with this one.

My finished product

Update: one handy hint for better living: don't dish up/serve until you're ready to eat it, the night before at the earliest, otherwise it will dry out.