Cooking with Chef Doug
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chefdoug@ibbp.com
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Baklava is an all-time favorite dessert of mine. Although a lot of people are intimidated by the process, it is fairly easy as you will see. It is made by layering a sweet walnut mixture over sheets of Filo pastry. You can use fresh Filo pastry if you like, but frozen will work quite nicely. Filo pastry can be found in the frozen dessert section at a supermarket. Each 1 pound box of Filo will contain approximately 21 sheets. Keep in mind that Filo will dry out easily leaving you with brittle sheets of dough so working quickly is important. Cover the unused stack of filo with parchment paper to prevent it from drying out too quickly. Do not cover it with a damp cloth, it may make the filo sticky and hard to handle. If the dough tears during handling, don't worry, just use the torn pieces as is. Also notice that in this recipe, as the sheets are layered in the baking dish, the dough will not fit perfectly. Just stager the layers of dough to cover the bottom of the dish.
Enjoy!
BAKLAVA
1 Cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Cinnamon, ground
1 lb Walnuts, Finely chopped
3 sticks Butter, melted
1 lb Filo pastry*
Syrup:
3-1/2 cups Sugar
1-3/4 cups water
1/3 cup Honey
1 each Lemon Peel
1 tsp Lemon Juice
6 each Cloves
1 stick Cinnamon
Equipment:
Pastry brush
15" X 10" X 2" Pyrex baking dish
Procedures:
Syrup:
In a sauce pan, combine the 3-1/2 cups sugar, water, honey, lemon
peel, lemon juice, cloves and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil
then simmer 15 minutes. Let cool.
Baklava:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Mix the cup Sugar, Cinnamon and
finely chopped walnuts. Brush baking dish with melted butter.
Place a sheet of filo in the dish (filo will need to be folded
over to fit in dish) and brush with butter. Repeat this process
buttering each layer until 7 sheets of filo are used. Spread
of the walnut-sugar mixture over the the filo.
Place and butter the next 7 sheets of filo as above. Spread the rest of the walnut-sugar mixture over the filo.
Place and butter the remaining sheets of filo as above ensuring the top layer is buttered. Using a sharp knife, cut 6 evenly spaced lengthwise cuts all the way down to the bottom of the dish. Now cut diagonally across the dish to form the baklava diamonds.
Sprinkle 3 Tablespoons of water over the top of the baklava. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes until golden brown.
Remove from oven and pour syrup over the hot baklava. Let
cool in the pan.
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