Home made Baklava

 Overview

I love Baklava the layered pastry dessert made of filo pastry, filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey.  I found this recipe in one of my cook books and wanted to make it for a long time. This is the first time I made it and recipe was real good followed and it came out as good as you buy from the store. My whole family loved it.

Home Made Baklava

Baklava Square

Ingredients

For Filling

2 cups walnut halves

1 1/4 cup shelled pistachios

3/4 cups almonds

Finely grated rind of a large Orange

6 tbs sesame seeds

1 tbs sugar

1 tbs cinnamon powder

23 sheets filo dough thawed if frozen

1 cup melted butter

Syrup

3 cups superfine sugar

2 cups water

5 tbs honey

3 cloves

2 large strips lemin zest

Steps

1. To make the filling put all the nuts in a food processor , process gently until chopped but ground coarsely. Transfer the chopped nuts to a bowl and stir in the orange rind sesame seeds sugar and cinnamon.

2. Preheat over to 325 F. Grease a baking dish rectangular in shape almost same size filo sheets. Keep the.  filo sheet covered with a damp towel.Place a sheet of filo on the bottom of the dish and brush with melted butter. Top with seven more sheets brushing with butter between each layer.

3. Sprinkle with 1 cup of the filling. Top with three sheets of filo, brushing each time with butter. Continue layering until you have used up all the filo and fillings, ending with a top layer of three sheets of the filo, brush with butter.

4. Using a sharp knife , cut the baklava into squares. Brush again with butter. Bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes till top layer is golden brown.

5. Meanwhile put all the ingredients for syrup in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar and bring to boil. then simmer heat and let it simmer for 15 minutes. let cools.

6. Remove baklava from the oven and strain the syrup over the top. Let the syrup soak in overnight.

Cut and remove squares and serve