Baklava Recipe
Tried it? Rate this Recipe:
|
Category: |
Category: |
|
Ingredients: |
Ingredients: Pastry: ¾ pound filo sheets (these usually come frozen so they need to be out of the freezer, thawing in the refrigerator for several days) 3 sticks butter, clarified plus extra unclarified butter for greasing pan ¾ pound pecans, finely chopped 1 ½ tsps cinnamon 1 ½ tsps cloves
Syrup: 1 ⅔ cups sugar 1 ⅓ cups water ⅔ cup honey 3 whole cloves 2 to 3 slices lemon, including peel.
|
|
Directions: |
Directions:Remove filo from refrigerator at least an hour before using. Cover with lightly moistened cloth. Pour clarified butter into bowl for spreading with pastry brush. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Pastry: Mix nuts and spices well. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13x2 inch pan with melted butter. Place 5 sheets, doubled over into buttered pan, one at a time, buttering each layer, making a total of 10 sheets. Sprinkle top of last sheet with a thin layer of nut mixture. On top of this, place another doubled over sheet, buttering each one and adding a thin layer of nut mixture. Continue adding sheets until all nut mixture is used. Then, one at a time, place 5 more doubled sheets, buttering each layer during the process. Butter the top sheet very generously. Before baking, cut baklava into 1 ½ inch diamond shaped pieces with a sharp knife (only partially through the pastry).
Bake for 30 minutes. Lower temperature to 300ºF and continue baking for another 30 minutes or until baklava is slightly browned.
Syrup: In a saucepan mix well all the syrup ingredients and bring to a quick boil. Lower heat, skim and simmer for 30 minutes. Cool.
Pour evenly over hot, baked baklava. Do not remove baklava from pan. Take sharp knife and cut through pieces. Let stand for 24 hours.
Baklava can be frozen after it has cooled. Thaw overnight.
Combining the syrup to the pastry can be done one of two ways:
Baklava/Syrup Hot/Cold Cold/Hot |
|
Number Of
Servings: |
Number Of
Servings:12 |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Working with the filo pastry takes patience and technique. I learned to keep a spray bottle of water handy when working with the pastry. Even though it is covered with a lightly moistened cloth, it will start to dry out. If it dries out, it becomes very difficult to handle so every so often I spray it lightly with a fine mist. I also found that sometimes I had to patch the layers as the filo pastry would separate despite my best efforts.
The first time I worked with this pastry, I had to send the boys to another room. The air was turning blue with my frustration. The final product was worth the effort.
This was a favorite of Michael's when he was young.
|
|