Two recipes for Baklava, from Diki Shamlian Gust and from Joel Ehrlich Date: Tue, 11 Jul 1995 10:22:04 -0500 Sender: Foodlore/Recipe Exchange From: Diki Shamlian Gust Subject: Repeat: Baklava Deb's Baklava recipe in case anyone else wants it... How's this for a delayed response to a request. Sorry. But I made baklava twice over the holidays. It's really easy (if you buy the frozen, ready-made filo dough--and who wouldn't?). I've cut the butter down somewhat over the years; it's still not low-fat or low-cal by any means, and of course, add more melted butter if you wish. This works fine for me. The recipe is an adaptation of a recipe I got many years ago from a Greek friend. She told me that the reason that homemade baklava is so much better than commerical is that restaurants often mix bread crumbs with the nuts to make the expensive nuts go further. Baklava 1/2 lb. filo dough (from a 1 lb. frozen package)* 1 1/2 lb chopped nuts (I use 1 lb. walnuts and 1/2 lb. pecans) 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. ground cloves 1/2 lb. butter, melted Syrup: 3 cups sugar 2 cups water 1 cup honey 1/2 lemon Mix chopped nuts and spiced in a bowl. Using a 9x13 pan, brush some melted butter on the bottom. Put in a piece of filo dough. Brush with more butter, add another layer of filo, etc., until you have 6 sheets of filo in the pan. Sprinkle on 1/3 of nut mixture. Build another layer of buttered filo, using 4 sheets. Sprinkle with another 1/3 nuts. Do another 4-sheet layer of buttered filo. Sprinkle with rest of nuts. Now add a top layer of buttered filo, about 8 sheets this time. If there is any melted butter left, pour it over the baklava in the pan. Taking a sharp knife, cut the baklava into diamond shapes, down to but not through the bottom layer of filo: the pieces on the ends will be incomplete diamonds (which the cook will have to eat later in the kitchen so as not to offend the guests ;-) ), but you should get 24 to 36 good diamonds, depending on how large you want the pieces to be. (Baklava is very rich.) Bake in a preheated 300 degree F. oven for 1 hour. Cool for about an hour. Pour *hot* syrup over *cool* baklava (my friend said this was very important). The baklava will soak up a good bit of the syrup as it cools. Baklava is better if made the day before it is served. It will keep unrefrigerated for several days. Syrup: Mix sugar, water and honey in a saucepan. Add a half a lemon. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes, skimming off foam as it accumulates. Press lemon against side of pan to release some of the juice into the syrup as it cooks. Remove lemon. Pour *hot* syrup over *cool* baklava. *If you haven't worked with filo dough before, it's different. It's tissue thin and dries out very quickly, so you have to keep it covered with a cloth which you remove just long enough to take up a sheet of filo. Sheets of filo can also stick together if they get wet, so defrost the package in your fridge for about 24 hours before opening it to avoid condensation on the dough itself. The sheets of dough are much larger than a 9"*13" pan, so you have to cut them to fit. I cut mine exactly in half to get sheets that were just a little smaller than my pan, but I'm cheap and didn't want leftover pieces that were too small to use next time. As I layered the filo, I staggered them a little to cover the entire surface. Worked great. (Hope this rambling discussion helps.) Actually baklava is easy to make, but everyone thinks it's hard, so you can get lots of points when you serve this to your guests. Deb kirwan@creighton.edu -- Diki Just when I think "I've got it", somebody writes a revision... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-dikig@mcs.com Date: Tue, 11 Jul 1995 09:57:18 -0800 Sender: Foodlore/Recipe Exchange From: Joel Ehrlich Organization: Salata * Redondo Beach, CA * 310-543-0439 28.8k Subject: Baklava Recipe Elizabeth_C_Summo@GILLETTE.COM wrote about Recipe Request to All on 10 Jul 95 04:10:20 saying... El> Hello everyone! El> I recently subscribed to this list and so far it is great. El> Unfortunately I haven't had the time to make any of the recipes I El> have collected, but hopefully soon. El> Anyway I have a request for 2 totally unrelated recipes: buffalo El> wings and baklava. El> Thanks a lot. El> Liz Here's a recipe for baklava. There are probably as many varieties of this dish as there are families living around the Mediterranean. This is what I call a "Basic" recipe. It can be built upon in many directions. Baklava No. 520 Yields 100 Baklava 1/2 Cup Honey 1 tsp Cinnamon 3/4 Cup Water 1/8 tsp Cloves 1/2 Lemon 1 Cup Sweet Butter 1 Tbls Orange Blossom Water 24 Sheets Phyllo 1 1/2 Cups Mixed Nuts, Chopped 2 Tbls Sugar Simmer a syrup made of honey, water and the lemon until it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Remove the lemon and add the orange blossom water. Simmer a few more minutes. Cool and refrigerate. Prepare a filling of mixed nuts (preferably almonds, pistachios and walnuts). Sprinkle the nuts with a mixture of sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter. Layer the phyllo sheets, 12 to a buttered baking tray. Brush the sheets with about half the butter and spread the filling on top of the phyllo. Cover with the remaining phyllo sheets, also brushed with butter. Cut the top layered sheets diagonally into 2" long diamonds, cutting through the filling but not the bottom layers of phyllo sheets. Bake about 30 minutes. Raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees and bake for an additional 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven. Pour the refrigerated syrup over the top of the puffed dough. Cut, using the same diagonals, through the uncut layer of dough. Serve when cool. Joel ... Keyboard not available - Press to continue.