Thursday, January 29, 2009

BAK-LA-VA...sounds a little naughty...and it is





I made Baklava the other day for a Young Women's cultural night that we were supposed to have last weekend, but most of them didn't show up because there were all at a going away party for some boy in the ward so I ended up bringing most of it home and since I thought we were going to eat it all that night, and so Justin wouldn't cry about not getting any, I made an extra giant pan of it for home. So basically I ended up with enough baklava to gain 20 lbs. Luckily it freezes well because I was eating so much of it and ruining my plans to get in shape!

So the recipe I used is on Allrecipes.com but I did a few things differently after I read all the comments. After you get your recipe just remember a few things...add some lemon slices and orange slices to the honey syrup while it cooks, add a pinch or two of nutmeg and cardamom to the cinnamon and nuts and use a variety of nuts if you can. I used almonds, pecans, walnuts and pistachios ground up pretty finely, but not overly ground. Lastly, you must cool the honey syrup and pour it into your just baked and hot phyllo dough OR pour hot syrup into you baked and cooled phyllo dough. It's not hard to make, but it takes about an hour of constant labor to put it all together, but at 1 to 2 dollars a piece they charge you at the store, it's totally worth it every once in a while! Oh yeah, I almost forgot to say that I put in a layer of dark chocolate after the initial 8 layers of dough on the bottom and it was heavenly!

6 comments:

Kyndal said...

Oh my, I LOVE me some baklava! I have been known to devour ridiculous amounts of this dessert! YUM!

Paige said...

I don't usually like baklava, but with dark chocolate? Girl, you've got something goin' here!

sbt said...

I don't usually like Baklava either....but the dark chocolate is making me think twice about trying to make this treat!

Sarah said...

I do love baklava but I've always been too intimidated to try it. I'm happy to hear that it is do-able. I think I'll give it a try. I saw Alton Brown make it on the Food Network and he put rose water in his. He put a brick in a stock pot with a metal bowl on it, put rose petals around the brick with a few cups of water. Let it boil with the lid on and the bowl caught all the rose water. It was so cool! But I don't know what that would do with the taste. Do you love that I copied your food blog idea? It's so fun!

Amelia Hohl said...

I've heard about rose water in things and I've always wanted to try it. I also heard about orange blossom water as well. I thought I would make my own with the blossoms on my lime tree, but I never got around to it. I know where to get the stuff though so next time I make it I'll use some rose water. It's expensive though. How much do you use? Not the full cup or two of water, right?

Sarah said...

I think it's just a teaspoon or so. It must be potent after all that distilling. Here's a link to Alton Brown's Baklava recipe. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baklava-recipe/index.html