Kathy's Baklava

(Greece)

Ingredients:

Layered Pastry with Walnuts & Honey Syrup
To make one 9- by 13-inch pastry (approximately 80, 1 ½”diamond shaped bars)
It’s best to have everything prepared in advance because the phyllo leaves dry out fast.
¾ pound, unsalted butter (3, quarter pound sticks), cut into ¼” bits
½ cup vegetable oil

40 sheets (filo pastry, each about 16 “ long & 12” wide (Athens Fillo (Phyllo) Dough, 1 box) defrosted in refrigerator for 2 days. Do not take filo leaves out of container and at room temperature until ready to place in 9”x13” baking dish. When placing the leaves in the dish, keep rest of leaves covered with a towel to keep them from drying out and disintegrating.

4 cups shelled walnuts pulverized in food processor with 2 oz. granulated sugar per cup plus a total of ½ tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp. ground cloves to the (The sugar allows the walnuts to pulverize without turning to walnut butter in the Cuisinart). Keep covered until ready to spoon on every second pastry leaf in the below process.

Directions:

Clarify the butter in a heavy saucepan by melting the butter slowly over low heat without letting it brown, skimming off the foam as it rises to the surface. Remove the pan from the heat, let it rest for 3minutes, then spoon off the clear butter and discard the milky solids at the bottom of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and stir the vegetable oil into the clarified butter. Using a pastry brush coat the bottom and sides of a 13”x9”x2 ½” baking dish with about 1 tablespoon of the mixture.

Fold a sheet of filo in half crosswise, lift it up gently and unfold it into the prepared dish. Press the pastry flat, fold down the excess around the sides and flatten it against the bottom. Brush the entire surface of the pastry lightly with the butter and oil mixture, and lay another sheet of filo on top, folding it down and buttering it in similar fashion. Sprinkle the pastry evenly with about 3 Tablespoons of the walnut mixture.

Repeat the same procedure using two sheets of buttered filo and 3 Tablespoons of the pulverized walnut mixture each time to make 19 layers in all. Spread the 2 remaining sheets of filo on top and brush the baklava with all of the remaining butter and oil mixture.

With a small, sharp knife score the top of the pastry with parallel diagonal lines about ½” deep and one and one half to two inches apart, then cross them diagonally to form diamond shapes. Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 300 degrees and bake for 45 minutes longer, or until the top is crisp and golden brown.

Meanwhile, make the syrup. Combine 2 cups granulated sugar, 1 cup of honey, 2 cups of water, a lemon peel. Bring all ingredients to a boil (watching carefully that it doesn’t boil over). Immediately turn down to the heat to simmer for 10 minutes. Strain lemon peel out and cool slightly. Pour warm syrup over baked baklava. Cool completely, cut and serve on cupcake papers. Makes about 88 pieces.

Syrup Ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups water
1 cup honey
1 lemon peel

Note: You do not need to use all the syrup if you like your Baklava less moist.

Recipes combined from Athens Foods Award Winning Fillo Dough Recipes Apollo, 13600 Snow Rd., Cleveland, Ohio 44142 @1992 & RECIPES:MIDDLE EASTERN COOKING,FOODS OF THE WORLD, TIME-LIFE BOOKS, NEW YORK, @1969 TIMES, Inc. copied by Kathleen Revak