Baklava!

The yummiest of desserts.  Minimal ingredients, the hardest part about this is wrangling that phyllo dough.  MAN is it fussy.  Just keep it from getting dry with a moist dish towel and don't fuss.  I also recommend getting a good basting brush for this (silicone puhlease, i have nightmares still from the time i got little paint brush hairs all in my pastry!) and don't freak out when your sheet of dough tears, just patch that sucker up!



Baklava

2 cups sugar
4-5 tablespoons honey (optional, you can also do agave or sub another 1/2 cup sugar)
1 1/2 cups water

2 sticks butter (or vegan margarine) melted

3 cups of whatever nuts you like (i did walnuts + pistachios)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves

1 package frozen phyllo dough, thawed in fridge





1. Combine first three ingredients in saucepan, bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook until liquid becomes syrupy.  This should take about 10 minutes.

2. Brush a 13x9 pan with butter, preheat oven to 375.

3. Combine nuts and spices in food processor and pulse into finely ground, remove to a handy bowl.

4. Move phyllo to work surface and trim to fit pan the best you can.  Add one sheet to pan, brush with butter.  Add 3 more, doing the same thing each time.  Every time you remove a sheet of dough to work with, make sure you cover it back up with the moist towel.

5. Add layer of nuts, then back to 3 more pieces of phyllo, over and over until the pan is full and brush top liberally with remaining butter.  Cut into squares and place in oven to bake for about 30 minutes, until golden.

6. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack (the pan, not the pastry).  Pour syrup all over pan and let it soak and set for a couple hours.   GET. STICKY.