Baklava

Wow! Wow! Wow! This was totally worth the effort! Will and I both love baklava. We can't eat in a Greek restaurant without ending the meal with baklava. When in a book store one day, Will saw this cook book:

Russian, German, and Polish

food and cooking

contributing editor Lesley Chamberlain

Will loves eastern european food, culture, history. He picked this out of the bargain book rack and asked if I would enjoy it. Haha! sure I will enjoy it. Okay, if every recipe is as good as this one, then I really will enjoy it!

- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- 14 oz package phyllo pastry, thawed if frozen
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup sugar
- finely grated zest of one lemon
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 3/4 cups blanched almonds, chopped
- 1 3/4 cups walnuts, chopped
- 3/4 cups pistachios or hazelnuts, chopped (a few extra to decorate if desired)

For the syrup,
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 2 strips of thinly pared lemon zest


Preheat the oven to 325. Brush the bottom of a jelly roll pan [I used a cake pan that was totally perpendicular on the sides.] with a little of the melted butter.

Using the pan as a guide cut the sheets of phyllo pastry with a sharp knife to fit the pan exactly.

Place one sheet of pastry in the bottom of the pan, brush with a little melted butter, then prepeat until you have used half of the pastry sheets. [Yes, that means butter on every single thin layer of pastry, yyuumm!] Set the remaining pastry aside and cover with a clean dish towel.

To make the filling, place the lemon juice, honey and sugar in a pan and heat gently until dissolved. Stir in the lemon zest, cinnamon and chopped nuts. Mix thoroughly.

Spread half the filling on the pastry, cover with 3 layers of the phyllo pastry and butter, then spread the remaining filling on the pastry.

Finish by using up the remaining sheets of pastry and butter on top and brush the top of the pastry liberally with butter.

Using a sharp knife, carefully makr the pastry into squares, almost cutting through the filling. Bake in the preheated oven for one hour or until crisp and golden brown.

Meanwhile, make the syrup. Place the sugar, honey, water, and lemon zest in a pan and xtir over low heat until the sugar and honey have dissolved. Bring to a boil, then boil for another 10 minutes, until the mixture has thickened slightly.

Take the syrup off the heat and let cool slightly. Remove the baklava from the oven. Remove and discard the lemon zest from the syrup, then pour over the pastry. Let soak for six hours or overnight. Cut into squares and serve, decorate with extra pistachios/hazelnuts if desired.

This is definitely a tedious dessert, but worth the effort! I think this is one of my few restaurant-quality desserts. I will definitely be making this again.