Baklava!

BAKLAVA:

After I posted the picture from the Israeli bakery some of you asked for my recipe for baklava. Here it is!

Baklava is a family favorite! One year for his birthday my son asked me to make Baklava instead of a birthday cake! This was his Birthday Baklava!

I had my first taste of Baklava in Israel several years ago and I’ve been a fan ever since!

Here’s my recipe, I hope you and your family will like it as much as we do! Making baklava is labor intensive, but well worth it!!

Baklava:

Ingredients:

1 package Fillo/Phyllo dough (found in the freezer section of your grocery store)

1 cup melted butter (be sure you use butter and not margarine!)

1 1/2 cups finely chopped nuts – you can use the nuts you like best. One option is 1 cup finely chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup ground almonds. I have made it with 1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans. Some people add pistachios in theirs. I like the taste of pecans so they are my go to nut!

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Dash ground cloves

Syrup:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1/2 of a lemon

2 tablespoons honey (you can use more honey up to 1/4 cup if you like it sweeter with a stronger honey flavor)… I usually do the 1/4 cup honey.

Directions:

Carefully unroll fillo dough and cut to fit a 13 x 9 glass baking pan.

Mix nuts, sugar, and spices.

Lay 10 sheets of fillo dough in pan, brushing each sheet with melted butter.

Keep a damp (not overly wet just damp) paper towel over the fillo dough you don’t have in the pan – so it won’t dry out as you put your baklava together.

After you have 10 layers of buttered fillo in the pan sprinkle half of the nut mixture over the fillo and drizzle with melted butter.

Repeat this process with 10 more sheets of fillo dough buttering each sheet as you proceed.

After you have the 2nd set of 10 sheets sprinkle the remaining nut mixture and drizzle with butter.

Place 10 more sheets of fillo dough and brush each sheet with melted butter.

Cut, without cutting through, in diamond shaped pieces (as you can see in the picture of my baklava I cut my diamonds in half to make a triangle shape).

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

Finish cutting and allow baklava to cool.

Prepare syrup by boiling sugar, water, and lemon for 15 minutes.

Remove lemon and add the honey.

Pour warm syrup over Baklava and prepare to have a new favorite desert!!

Enjoy!!