RECIPE: Baklava

I've always wanted to try my hand at homemade baklava and I finally made it happen this past weekend. Much like the Scottish Shortbread cookies, this recipe is pretty foolproof. There isn't much room to go wrong, even for the novice baker! So don't be afraid if this is your first or second foray into baking.

I basically followed DedeMed's recipe, with a few minor alterations. Her recipes and videos can be found here and here. There are only a few items that you will need to pick up from your local Middle Eastern/South Asian/etc grocery store: Rose water, Orange Blossom Water, Phyllo pastry & nuts of your choice.

Here are the ingredients you will need:

• 1 package phyllo dough
• 1 1/4 cup of butter melted
• 1 1/2 cups of finely chopped nuts of your choice
• 6 tsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp cloves 
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup of Simple Syrup (recipe found below)
• Ground pistachio to decorate

Simple Syrup/Atyr

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp rose water
• 1 tbsp orange blossom water 

 So now that you have all of the ingredients...you're probably wondering what to do with them!

1. To begin, you will need to grind the nuts to a desired size and mix in the cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg and cloves.
2. You will want to choose a nice, wide square or rectangular-shaped pan to hold your dessert.
3. Spread some melted butter all around the pan.
4. Cut your phyllo sheets to the required dimensions (based on your pan shape). It is best to have your sheets cut a bit smaller than the pan itself.

5. Add your first layer of phyllo to the pan. Brush on the melted butter until the entire sheet is covered. Repeat until desired thickness is reached. I used about 14 layers on the bottom and 14 on top. Mine were the perfect thickness, I think.

6. When you reach the halfway point, 14+ sheets in, you will want to layer on the nut mixture evenly. Put as much or as little as you wish. If you prefer to have more than one layer of nuts, you will want to separate the nut layers with about 4 phyllo sheets.

7. Cover the nut layer with the remaining 14+ sheets, remembering to slather on the melted butter between each layer.

8. Once you cover the top layer in butter, you will need to cut the baklava into the desired shape. I kept mine in squares. Be gentle with the dough!

9. Place your pan/tray in the oven for about 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees, until it turns golden in colour.

I made some rolled Baklava as well!

10. While you are waiting for the Baklava to bake, you will want to get started on the Atyr, or Simple Syrup. Mix the sugar, water and lemon juice in a pot and allow it to simmer on medium heat for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, add the rose & orange blossom waters and leave for 2-3 minutes. Once done, remove from stove to cool.

11. Once golden brown, remove Baklava from oven. It should look something like this.

12. While the baklava is still hot, add about 1 cup of the simple syrup into the pan- soaking the baklava. Let sit for an hour or two for the baklava to absorb the syrup. Decorate tops of baklava with pistachios or the nuts you used in your recipe.

I used the entire 16 ounce package of phyllo dough and finished the entire quantity of simple syrup in this recipe, which yielded about 82 1-inch squares.

Here is the finished product!!!