Baklava

By XrayKim

Ingredients

• 1 pound walnuts, ground pretty fine (I pulsed them in the food processor, which worked fine.)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 pound unsalted butter
• Frozen phyllo dough, defrosted

Details

Adapted from blogs.courier-journal.com

Preparation

Step 1

In a large bowl mix together the ground walnuts, sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon. Taste and add more cinnamon if desired. It should taste strongly, but not aggressively, of cinnamon, which can become bitter if overdone.

Melt the butter.

From the phyllo package take 2 sheets (or 4 halves) and put them aside, covered with a barely damp towel. These will be the covering sheets to be used at the end. They need to remain moist enough to avoid crumbling, but not wet, which will make them collapse.

Brush a heavy 10-by-16-inch baking cookie sheet with some of the melted butter.

Lay one sheet of phyllo or two halves as they come in the package to cover the bottom of the pan. The edges of the phyllo sheet must be laid evenly at the pan sides. The phyllo is likely to overlap the pan, so line each sheet up with the sides evenly, and fluff it in the middle so the edges just fit into the pan. Brush first sheet with melted butter.

Repeat the process, laying down one sheet evenly at a time and brushing with melted butter until you have 9 sheets on the pan.

Put on another sheet, but do not butter it. Spread 1/3 of nut mixture over the sheet, cover nut mixture with a sheet of phyllo, and dab with butter all over the surface. Dab rather than brush this sheet, for the sheet over the nuts might tear if you brush it.

Cover that buttered sheet with an unbuttered sheet, spread on another 1/3 of the nut mixture, cover with a sheet and dab with butter, then an unbuttered one, and finish spreading the nut mixture on it. Top with the remaining phyllo sheets, brushing each one with melted butter.

Finally, cover the whole pile with the two saved sheets, making sure they are stretched to cover evenly. If they drape over the edges of the pan, trim off excess as neatly as possible with scissors or a sharp knife.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

With a sharp knife, cut pastry into diamonds. Heat remaining butter to sizzling and pour evenly over pan, making sure you brush every piece gently but evenly. Once buttered, the last step is to sprinkle the whole top with water — wet your hand and shake it over the top, sprinkling even twice. This will help make the top sheets puff up nicely. Bake for 1 hour until lightly brown and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, turning sheet back to front once halfway through. Remove from oven.

Pour cooled syrup over the hot pastry. (It will sizzle.) Let it sit for a few hours. Can be frozen at this stage for up to 3 months. These proportions will serve a large party. Put out what seems needed and freeze the rest.

Syrup:

• 4 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 4 sticks of cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon whole cloves

In a saucepan, stir together all ingredients (including the rinds of the lemons after squeezing out the juice). Bring to a boil and cook until liquid reaches 225 degrees on a candy thermometer. Prepare ahead of time and let cool to room temperature. Strain out cloves, cinnamon sticks and lemon rinds before pouring on the hot baklava. It should take 2 1/2 cups of syrup only.