When holiday cooks tire of making the same old desserts, they should consider creating a delicious, out of the ordinary, batch of sweet, sticky baklava. This scrumptious gourmet dessert, from the old countries, will enrich any holiday meal. In fact, creating a batch of this sweet confection, made of layers of paper thin, butter drenched dough, will turn an everyday cook into a master chef. This succulent dessert should be made at least one day, and preferably one entire week, before it will be served since it continues to get better as it sets. Despite being a bit time consuming, the steps to prepare this best Greek baklava are fairly simple..
Ingredients for Baklava Pastry
- 1 pound phyllo dough (full pieces)
- 11/4 pound English walnuts
- 3/4 pound butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 40 cloves
Preparation of Baklava
Be sure to thaw the phyllo dough in the refrigerator for about six or seven hours. Thawing at room temperature will make it too sticky to work with well. After the dough is thawed, preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
- Chop the walnuts and then mix them with the sugar and cinnamon. Set this mixture aside.
- Use melted butter and a pastry brush to grease the bottom and sides of a 12 x 15 inch pan. If desired, the pan can even be a little larger and should be between one and two inches deep.
- Brush one piece of the phyllo dough with melted butter and place it in the pan. The dough will extend a little beyond the edges of the pan. Keep the additional pieces of pastry covered with a clean damp dish towel to keep them from drying out.
- Continue by brushing four more sheets of dough with butter and placing them atop the first piece. Be sure each piece of dough is well saturated with the butter.
- Sprinkle the nut mixture over the buttered sheets.
- On top put five more layers of dough. This time brush only between the layers with butter. Otherwise, no butter on the top layer.
- Cut off and discard any dough that extends beyond the pan's edges.
- Mark one inch diamonds halfway through the depth of the dough, starting in one corner of the pan and moving diagonally to the opposite corner.
- Finish by adding one clove to the top of each diamond.
- While baking the pastry at 250 degrees for two hours, prepare the honey mixture to drizzle over the top.
Ingredients for the Dessert's Honey Syrup
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup water
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 lemon
Preparation of the Baklava Honey Syrup
- Squeeze the lemon juice out in a saucepan. Afterwards, add the remainder of the 1/2 lemon, rind and all.
- Continue preparing the syrup by adding the sugar, water and honey to the pan.
- Mix the ingredients and simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally.
- Remove any large pieces of the lemon rind and carefully pour the syrup over the hot baklava, being sure to cover every part.
While it is still hot, finish cutting the rest of the way through each diamond. After the baklava cools, use a pastry knife to lift each piece carefully onto a platter. The baklava will continue to get better each day. Cover it tightly, but do not refrigerate.
Baklava, a rich, sweet dessert made of layers of phyllo dough filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with honey will be a welcome addition to any holiday buffet. Traditionally served at holidays, this dessert will top off any meal in a spectacular fashion.
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