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| Baklava |
OK, so obviously I missed the day in school where we learned what diamond-shaped meant, because for some reason I cut mine into triangles. Maybe I just like triangles, OK? While I'm on the subject of foux pas, phyllo dough is not my friend. I need a lesson in working with delicate pasty, because it kept falling apart on me. I mean, I know I'm not a little delicate flower or anything, but come on! So... not all 16 ounces of the dough made it into the recipe. I had to sacrifice some of it. OK, a lot of it. I'm not sure if it made a huge difference in the end result, but I could be wrong. Again, this is something I've never had before, so I don't have anything to compare it to. So if anyone has even a little wisdom on the matter, please enlighten me! I could use all the help I can get! For starters, it smells incredible! Each paper thin layer of dough is brushed with melted butter and then between every 15 sheets or so, (or in my case 8 sheets or so) you add a layer of walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. You repeat this 3 times, ending with the layers of dough, and then you bake it for roughly 45 minutes or until golden brown. I'm guessing that since I was missing a few layers of dough, due to the snobbishness of the pastry, mine started to brown at about 35 minutes. So, after it cools, you pour a syrup made of water, sugar, and honey over the entire dish and let it set for 24 hours. So today, when I finally cut into it, and pulled out my little triangle of Mid-Eastern flakiness, I took a bite. And it was uber sweet! Like it hurt my teeth sweet. Is it supposed to be this sweet? I mean, I get the reason for the syrup, it holds everything together, but maybe it was just too much of it. I'm thinking I should have not used all of it because of the whole, "I didn't use all the phyllo I was supposed to" thing. I don't know. It was good, don't get me wrong. But for ME to say something is too sweet you know it's sweet. So again, please give me some suggestions. And just a side thought...how did a Middle Eastern dish get into a Southern Living Cookbook anyhow?
Hey girl, I was checking out your blog. it's awesome! Anyway a few pointers on your baklava...if you add some citris juice to the syrup and also a cinnamon stick it kinda cuts down on the sweetness. But it is a sweet dessert. we used to order one slice and split it between 3 of us because of that. Also to make it easier to eat and serve you can make baklava cigars. you do five sheets of phyllio with the butter between and then a line of the walnut mixture then just roll it up. place all the rolls in a dish and bake. then do the syrup. you can slice the rolls and serve each roll in a cupcake liner. Also to help the phyllio dough not dry up you have to have a moitened towel to lay over the dough you havn't used yet. and keep putting the towel back over it even though you have to keep taking it off to get another sheet. That really helps it not dry out. Anyway keep up the good work on the blog. :)--susan
ReplyDeleteHi Susan! Thanks for the tips. I will keep this on hand for the next time I attempt to make this dish. Loooove the cigar roll idea. I'm sure it looks super cute too. Thanks for reading! ~Lorren
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