My Baklava Adventure

My sister's husband, Greg, is pretty famous in our family for making scrumptious desserts. His cheesecakes, creme brulee, and tirimasu are pretty much legendary. (I haven't sampled the tirimasu yet, but hope to someday-better yet, I hope to acquire his recipe and attempt it myself).

Well, I guess I'd have to credit Greg as my inspiration because in recent years I, too, have set out to master some fun dessert recipes. For awhile now, Darin has been hoping that I'd add baklava to my repertoire. Perhaps it stems from the time he has spent overseas, I'm not sure, but he just really likes baklava. I've been a little reluctant to try it because it looked like a complicated, laborious project; something I figured I'd be able to "mess up" too easily.

This week Darin has been facilitating one of his week-long trainings for work and it has been particulary draining for him. So I decided to rise to the occaision and finally attempt to make baklava as sort of a reward/surprise for Darin at the end of the long hard week.

I began this endeavor with the help of a great website I learned about from a friend's blog (thanks, Tara!) called Recipezaar. There were multiple baklava recipes to choose from... here's a link to the one I chose: http://www.recipezaar.com/4213

I've had such a fun afternoon diving into the baklava-making process today, that I thought I'd share my "baklava adventure" with you in photos:

Step One: Making the Syrup



Next I prepared the three components that make up the nut mixture (1. sugar, cinamon, allspice and egg 2. graham cracker crumbs-my substitute for breadcrumbs which I forgot to buy at the store 3. chopped up almonds). Lucy was great company for me throughout the lengthy process:

Then I began the task of layering the tissue paper-thin sheets of fillo dough, melted butter and nut mixture in a 9x13 pan:



With the layering process finally complete, I cut the top layers of dough into diamond shapes and pressed a whole clove into each piece. It was then ready to bake at 350 degrees for an hour!

As soon as it came out of the oven, I was able to pour the cooled syrup over the golden, crispy layers. About 2 hours later, the flavors were set together enough for Darin and I to sample it! It turned out to be quite a tastey and rewarding experience!

The End!