BAKLAVA
Baklava is a rich, sweet, holiday confection prepared using phylo sheets,
which are a plain, paper-thin flour and water pastry popular in Greek and
Turkish pastries, both sweet and savory.
The wafer thin layers of phylo are spread with butter; the eighteenth layer
is then covered with chopped nuts and another 18 layers are placed, with
each layer being buttered for flakiness.
Phylo ('phylo' is the Greek term but these delicate mille-feuille pastry
sheets are also known as 'yufha' in Turkey and 'filo' in the Middle East)
may be found in the freezer section of the supermarket (one brand is
Pepperidge Farm).
It is important never to allow the phylo sheets to be exposed to the air for
any length of time during the preparation or they will dry out and become
brittle. For this reason, keep a microwavable cup filled with butter close
at hand and brush the phylo often or keep it covered with a damp, clean
cloth.
Any combination of chopped walnuts, pistachios and almonds may be used as
filling, with pistachios perhaps being the most authentic.
Baklava I:
3 cups walnuts, finely chopped
1 cup blanched almonds, finely chopped
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 lb phylo (filo) leaves
2 cups butter, melted
Combine walnuts, almonds and spice. In a baking pan, layer 5 phylo leaves,
buttering between each layer as it is stacked. Repeat 4 times. Top with
remaining phylo leaves, buttering each second leaf.
Using a sharp knife, trim the edges and cut Baklava into diamond shapes.
Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cool.
Pour hot syrup over Baklava (see below).
Syrup:
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
lemon or orange rind
1 stick cinnamon
Combine all ingredients for syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook
for 10 minutes. Pour syrup, while hot, over the cooled Baklava.
The recipe below is for another version of Baklava. Try both and see which
is your favorite.
Baklava II:
2 lbs chopped walnuts, almonds or pistachios
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup Zwieback, ground
1 lb butter, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 lbs. phylo dough
Process Zwieback crackers in food processor or blender with cinnamon and
sugar. Add walnuts, almonds or pistachios (or any combination of these three
kinds of nuts) and pulse just a few seconds more.
Note: Do not process until nuts are ground - be sure to leave some texture,
stopping to stir with a spatula if needed to obtain even results and only
until the nuts are coarsely chopped.
Brush the bottom of a 14x20" pan with melted butter and place on a pastry
sheet. Brush again with melted butter, repeating this process until 4 pasty
sheets line the bottom of the pan. Brush the fourth layer with butter and
sprinkle with the nut mixture. Add another phylo sheet, brush with melted
butter, sprinkle with nut mixture.
Repeat this process until all ingredients are used, finishing with 4 pastry
sheets on top. Brush top with butter and cut into diamond shapes.
Bake in a 350°F oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow
to cool before topping with syrup.
Syrup:
1 1/2 cups water
3 cups granulated white sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Boil syrup for 10 minutes. Pour hot syrup over cold Baklava and leave
overnight in baking pan.
Baklava may be frozen.
-----Original Message-----
From: Cookinginthedark [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Charles Rivard
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 10:39 PM
To: cooking in the dark list
Subject: [CnD] baclava recipe request
In a chat room, we were talking about baclava. I'm not sure that I spelled
it right, but I thought that I had a recipe that uses filo dough. I was
trying to describe what this Greek dessert is to someone who has never had
it. If someone has a recipe, I sure would like it! I'm thinking that I got
it from this list quite some time ago. Maybe it is on my desktop computer
which is currently out of commission. Thanks in advance.
---
Be positive! When it comes to being defeated, if you think you're finished,
you! really! are! finished!
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