Making Baklava!

I'll admit from the 'git go' that I have a sweet tooth.  Every year during the holidays, we make some of our favorite goodies for snacking on and one of the most treasured of those indulgences is baklava.  Baklava is an ancient dessert that can be traced back to the Ottoman empire.  It is a decadently sweet dish made with layers of phyllo dough interspersed with chopped pecans, toasted coconut and then the entire dish is drizzled with honey. Phyllo dough is made up of many layers of parchment paper thin sheets of dough.  Every time we make this we wonder how on earth they make phyllo dough since it is so thin and fragile.

Here's what you need to make it:

• 1 package of frozen phyllo dough, thawed
• 1 1/4 cups butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cups toasted flaked coconut
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar

Yeah, go ahead and make that appointment at the dentist while you're at it.  Then get out a 13 X 9 X 2 inch baking pan.  Take out your phyllo dough and start layering one sheet of dough at a time into the pan, brushing each one with the melted butter. 


Put one sheet down and then paint it with melted butter

Cover the dough you are working with in a damp wash cloth to keep it from drying out between putting down each sheet and brushing with butter.  Count each sheet of phyllo and when you get to the tenth one, stop.


Brush each and every layer with melted butter

Combine the coconut, pecans, brown sugar, and allspice and stir it up real good.  Sprinkle a third of the mixture over the top of the tenth layer of phyllo dough and then start the process all over again. 



Sprinkling the sweet mixture on the phyllo

Once you get to the next ten layers, sprinkle another third of the mixture on top and start again, repeating the procedure twice with the remaining mixture of coconut, pecans and spices and ending with buttered phyllo.



Same song, second verse

When you've finished this process and have exhausted your phyllo, butter and mixture, cut diagonally across the pan with a sharp knife to form little diamond shaped pastries.  

Cutting the pastries up

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and then let cool completely.


Right out of the oven

Ahh... but we're not done.  Combine your honey, water and sugar in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.  Then reduce your heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or so.  Drizzle this syrup over the baklava.  It will make the baklava nice and shiny and tempting like in the picture below:


Looks pretty good, huh?

But here's the hard part of the recipe - you can't eat it yet.  Cover it up and let it stand at room temperature for 24 hours.  This allows all the flavors to come together and also is a good test of your patience and endurance.  At last we are ready to partake:


Goodness gracious, does this ever look good?!

Put on the coffee and scoop out a little diamond shaped pastry on a plate and grab a fork.   

M-m-m-m-m...

Here's a picture without the flash so you can see how each layer of phyllo becomes a flaky, buttery bit of heaven on your fork.


Baklava

 And there you have it, one of our favorite desserts and yet another use for those delicious pecans we picked in the yard this fall.