Greek Baklava

As the holidays approach, traditionally people make pumpkin pies, cookies, and other sweet treats.  In my house, we almost always have a fresh tray of Baklava.  Personally, I find Baklava a little too sweet so I decreased the sugar and added a little lemon juice to the syrup.  The result was perfect!

The recipe is actually very easy and foolproof but you should allow a good 45+ minutes of prep time since buttering each sheet of filo dough can be time consuming.

Here is my recipe.  Enjoy!

Baklava Ingredients:

1 lb Filo Dough (Thawed)

3/4 lb Sweet Butter

1 lb Walnuts

2 tsp. Cinnamon

2 tbsp Sugar

Cloves

Syrup Ingredients:

2 cups Sugar

2 cups Water

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

10 Whole Cloves

4 Cinnamon Sticks

1/2 cup Honey

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix all ingredients for the syrup together in a saucepan and boil at medium heat for 40 minutes.  Remove all solid pieces of cloves and cinnamon sticks.  Turn off stove and let syrup cool completely.

In a large bowl, mix together finely chopped walnuts, cinnamon and sugar. 

Open the package of filo dough.  Straighten out the sheets for easy access and then cover in plastic wrap.  On top of the plastic wrap place a damp towel.  This will ensure that the dough does not dry out.  Every time you take a sheet, make sure to recover the dough because it dries out very quickly. 

Melt the pound of butter in a bowl.  Butter the bottom of a 13’’ by 9’’ by 2’’ pan.  Place 6 sheets of filo dough in the bottom of the pan, brushing each sheet with butter.  Sprinkle some of the walnut mixture (6-7 heaping tsp.) on top of the filo.  Add 4 more sheets of filo, brushing each with butter.  Sprinkle with the walnut mixture again.  Repeat until 6 sheets of filo are left.  Place these 6 sheets on top, brushing each sheet with butter.  With a sharp knife, cut the baklava into squares.  Then cut these squares into two triangles.  Reheat the remaining butter and pour evenly over the entire pan.  Add a whole clove to the center of each square*.  Bake in a preheated oven, on middle shelf, at 300 degrees for one hour and ten minutes.  Raise temperature to 400  degrees and bake an additional ten minutes.  Remove from oven and pour the cooled syrup over the hot baklava.  Let this cool.  Cover in wax paper and foil and store in the fridge. 

*Remove whole cloves before serving!