Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Blissfully Baklava

I'm not Greek, actually I'm Puerto Rican, but tell you what, there are a couple of foods that make me wish that I was Greek; Dolmas and Baklava. It was Baklava night at my house and the result was a sweet victory! In other words, I called my Aunt and asked her for her Baklava recipe that was handed down to her from her husbands Grandmother. When my Aunt made it for her Church something or another (I don't remember what it was for) a guy from Greece said it reminded him of his Grandmother's Baklava recipe.

I brought some of the baklava into work and the crew went crazy on it. I mean I made a tray for them and it was gone in 30mins. 4 hours of labor gone in 30 mins, why does it always work that way? To this day I will never know. The labor of love, I guess you can call it that.

So it took 4 hours to make 2 batches, which all things considered I don't think it was too bad. And boy was it delicious! Not to mention incredibly beautiful!

My first dilemma was trying to find the Phyllo Dough! I mean seriously where would you put phyllo in a grocery store. I checked near the cinnamon rolls and other refrigerated doughs but no luck, and when I asked someone for help, they just looked at me blankly as if they didn't know what phyllo was! I was having no luck. fortunately Sam was there to help me and she suggested we check the frozen isle near the pizza. The PIZZA, why would anyone in their right mind put Phyllo dough near Pizza. I mean pizza is Italian, phyllo is Greek.... Oh but wait the phyllo was so innocent and sweet lying next to the pizza..

Phyllo Dough
Now that I'm off that tangent, I didn't realize how much butter baklava actually calls for... in case you are worried about the extra weight you will gain from eating this food, don't worry because there is only a ton of butter in baklava... Oh well the butterer the better (Yes I spelled butter wrong on purpose.)
All the brush stroke looking things on the top is butter is cooling!



Baklava Recipe:
All Recipes.com

Ingredients:


1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough
1 lb chopped nuts
1 cup butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey

Directions:


1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F. butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 pan.
2. Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll Phillo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fir in pan.
Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying as you work. Place two sheets of dough in
pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of nut mixture
on top. Top with 2 sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layer as you go. The top layer should be about 6-8
sheets deep.
3. Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of pan. You may cut
into four long rows then make diagonal cuts. Bake for 50 mins until Baklava is golden and crisp.
4. Make sauce while Baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey.
Simmer for 20 mins.
5. Remove Baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers.
this freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.


      11 comments:

      kr said...

      I'm sorry I forgot to mention where to find fillo (phyllo) dough when I gave you the recipes. I think I also had a hard time the first time I went looking. I'm glad all went well. Isn't it nice to give cookies as gifts? They're always so well received.

      Anne Higgins said...

      Thank you for the Baklava recipe!
      I will try it!

      I posted two recipes in the last two or three days that you might like to try as well. You can see them on my blog:

      http://annesbirdpoems.blogspot.com

      Phyllis @Around the House said...

      I will try this recipe for sure...glad I found your sight...I am a new follower of yours

      Whitney said...

      Never tried either of these things, but it sounds really good!

      Free College Money from Scholarship and Grants said...

      Great blog! Thanks for sharing.

      Anonymous said...

      hun interesting blog.i really appreciate it,i have bookmark it for revisit. i have a list of rice exporters for online trade

      nursery furniture said...

      you will gain from eating this food, don't worry because there is only a ton of butter in baklava... Oh well the butterer the better.

      fashionshop said...

      Can you believe it is not a difficult thing to add your name or whatever you want on a cambridge leather satchel bag any more? I have bought one online cambridge satchel 13 and found it has a good quality and cheaper than anyone, even the style is especially fit for students and they have many new products. So i want to introduce the website to you. You can get a
      cambridge satchel fluorescent and enjoy yourself.

      Emine Kobaş said...

      In ancient times, the meaning of case handling of İskilip is baklavanın healing as a medicine is produced


      --present culture.-participation as it is built into the Front Türklerden in terms of diamond origin since

      İskilip is a Turkish sweet and naturally. :)

      Anonymous said...

      Thank god i will never have to go thru formal dress shopping again , our experience started when my daughter and i went to sassy boutique to buy a sherri hill dress , we tried it on in a larger size but they had told me sherri hill date to receive it will be later then her formal , so we thought we would try a place called dollhouse in top Ryde , they seemed pleasant she tried on the dress it was way to big for her but they said they can order the size for her by the formal , so we went ahead and placed a deposit mind you they were much cheaper then other places we had went to , anyway we were told the dress will take 3 weeks i went back after a week and asked how is the dress coming along , another girl had served us and told me the dress has finished , finished or arrived!!! so i was surprised anyway payed the balance and went home my daughter was so excited she tried it on and it closed but the bust area was so big so i went to the alteration place also in top Ryde and when i went there it was like he knew us , the guy told me " what’s wrong with it i just fixed it yesterday" , i said what!!! this is a new dress i just bought he hesitated and then quoted me a ridiculous price to fix it , so i went to another alteration place in Parramatter where she had told me this dress had already been altered and the bust area it is hard to fix , she fixed it as much as she can , but the bad thing about all this is i could not take dollhouse to consumer affairs because for me to get my discount , i accepted to buy it with no receipt and payed cash. So what we were told she altered the dress we had tried in the store and just made it smaller from the back zipper because the bust was fully beaded. I hope no one goes thru this i really urge you don't buy from there Doll house are cheaters

      Privatbank said...

      Хороший рецепт