This baklava recipe is from one of my Italian grandma's Greek-lady-friends. Although baklava is not one of our traditional Italian dessert recipes - it does cross over in our culture a bit since it's a tradition Greek/Turkish dessert. Baklava's flavor from cloves and cinnamon and ONE pound of butter! The after effect of the lemon-honey syrup is what gives it the "glue" that holds the flavors together! You will need a couple of things other than the standard stuff you need in Italian cookies recipes:
Don't plan on making this in a hurry. It is time consuming. But then again, you won't be bringing a standard dessert to the party like every one else either! (Take that all you WalMart-cookie-bringers!)
There's not much room for substituting. This is a traditional recipe. But there are a few hints and tips below.
Happy baking and thanks for stopping by!
* 3 cups of walnuts (Yes, T-H-R-E-E)
* package of phyllo dough - found in the frozen section
* 1 box of zwieback crackers
* 4 Tablespoons of sugar
* 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon of cloves
* 1 pound of butter
* 1 Cup of sugar
* 1 cup water
* 1/2 lemon sliced
* 2 tablespoons honey
* In a large bowl, mix walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and zwieback back crumbs
* Butter a baking pan lightly (like a jelly roll pan)
* Butter 5 sheets of phyllo and place them in the bottom of the pan
* Sprinkle with the nut filling mixture
* Over this, place 2 more buttered phyllo
* Continue until all of the nut mixture is used
* Butter 5 remaining 5 phyllo sheets placing them over the top
* Cool in the refrigerator so it will slice better
* Preheat your oven to 325 while you are cooling
* Remove from the 'fridge after they are cooled and slice in diamond shapes
* Bake in 325 degrees for about 30 minutes or until they are golden
* While the baklava is baking prepare the honey syrup by combining all the lemon honey syrup ingredients in a sauce pan and boiling gently for 15 minutes
* Add the honey at the end of the 15 minutes
* Remove the baklava from the oven (after it's golden) and pour the honey syrup in the crevices (while it's hot!)
* Don't pour the syrup on the top or you sog out your baklava.
* Give yourself for this yummy project.
No. A baklava recipe is very traditional. So no. You don't want to omit anything either.
Until your package of phyllo is used up. Just remember to keep 5 sheets for that last layer.
Basically they are a sweet cracker thats is baked twice. (Somewhat like an Italian biscotti recipe - it goes thru the last baking to really dry things out.) Nabisco used to make them in logs and we would give them to our kids to teeth on. When cooks use them in baking they are ground up in to crumbs - much like graham cracker crumbs.
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