Baklava!

Another one of those fun words to say. Even more fun to make and to eat. Recipes and "making of" pictures to follow.

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Recipe adapted from here and here:

Ingredients
For the filling:
2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 ounces almonds
6 ounces walnuts
6 ounces pecans (I substituted pecans)
2/3 cup sugar
1 pound phyllo dough, thawed
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

For the syrup:
1 cups honey
1 cups water
1 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Finely chop the almonds, walnuts and pecans; add to the cinnamon sugar mixture. Set aside.

Trim the sheets of phyllo to fit the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch metal pan. Brush the bottom and sides of the pan with butter; lay down a sheet of phyllo and brush with butter. Repeat this step 9 more times for a total of 10 sheets of phyllo.

Top with 1/3 of the nut mixture and spread thinly.

Layer 6 more sheets of phyllo with butter in between each of them, followed by another third of the nuts. Repeat with another 6 sheets of phyllo, butter and remaining nuts. Top with 8 sheets of phyllo brushing with butter in between each sheet. Brush the top generously with butter.

Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and cut into squares.

Return pan to the oven and continue to bake for another 30 minutes. Remove pan from the oven, place on a cooling rack, and cool for 2 hours before adding the syrup.

Make the syrup during the last 30 minutes of cooling. Combine the honey, water, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium saucepan and set over high heat. Stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Once boiling, boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat.

After the baklava has cooled for 2 hours, re-cut the entire pan following the same lines as before. Pour the hot syrup evenly over the top of the baklava, allowing it to run into the cuts and around the edges of the pan.

Allow the pan to sit, uncovered until completely cool. Cover and store at room temperature for at least 8 hours and up to overnight before serving. Store, covered, at room temperature for up to 5 days.

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The recipe originally tells you to cut into 28 pieces, but I cut them into more (9x4=36).

Total cost of ingredients: about $20. Probably less if you already have some of the basic ingredients on hand.