Baklava

Here's another recipe that I made ages ago and just never got around to posting about.  I had always thought that Baklava was so difficult as I'd heard it involved layer after layer after layer of phyllo.  And then the idea of phyllo put me off as well because I'd heard it was so delicate to work with...but since I tackled my fear of phyllo a few months ago with baked phyllo triangles and I realized how incredibly easy phyllo actually was.....bring on the phyllo recipes!

As often happens when surfing the web looking at blogs, you're looking at one blog and then it leads you to another and then another.  I found myself on the Closet Cooking, the blog of Kevin from Toronto, Canada and his wonderful recipe for Baklava!

His recipe was very straight forward and well written and reassuring as even he'd been intimidated by making baklava, but then realized it was so much easier than he'd thought.  All the more reason to give it a try.

I halved his recipe when I made it as the only baking dish I had handy was about half the size (I'd still been waiting for my container of goods to arrive from Canada and hadn't wanted to buy a new dish).  Please excuse the horrible dish in the photos!  I think Chris bought it at IKEA and I have scrubbed it a million times and it never comes clean! Ugh.

I am including Kevin's original recipe for a large pan of baklava, but as I mentioned I only made half because of my dish.  I am sooooo making a large pan next time though!

Baklava
From Closet Cooking
4 cups walnuts (chopped)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup butter (melted)
1 pound phyllo pastry (thawed)
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick cinnamon
2 inch slice lemon peel
2 inch slice orange peel
3/4 cup honey

Directions:
1. Mix the walnuts, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
2. Brush the bottom of a 9X13 inch pan with butter.
3. Brush butter onto the top of a sheet of the phyllo dough and place the sheet into the pan. Repeat until there are 8 sheets in the pan.
4. Sprinkle 1/3 of the walnut mixture onto the phyllo in the pan.
5. Brush butter onto the top of a sheet of the phyllo dough and place the sheet into the pan. Repeat until there are 2 sheets on top of the nut mixture.
6. Sprinkle 1/3 of the walnut mixture onto the phyllo in the pan.
7. Brush butter onto the top of a sheet of the phyllo dough and place the sheet into the pan. Repeat until there are 2 sheets on top of the nut mixture.
8. Sprinkle 1/3 of the walnut mixture onto the phyllo in the pan.
9. Brush butter onto the top of a sheet of the phyllo dough and place the sheet into the pan. Repeat until there are 8 sheets on top of the nut mixture.
10. Slice the baklava with a sharp knife.
11. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until golden brown on top, about 25-35 minutes.
12. Bring the water, sugar, cinnamon, lemon and orange to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
13. Add the honey and simmer for 2 minutes.
14. Remove the cinnamon, and peals from the syrup.
15. Pour the syrup over the baklava when it comes out of the oven.
16. Let the baklava cool for a few hours.

I recommend this recipe to everyone!  It is really easy to make and quite tasty!