Tasty Tuesday: Baklava

We had a few Central Asian loving friends over this weekend for chai and prayer.  I love any excuse to break out my pretty Turkish tea set and its always encouraging to spend some time remembering our friends serving overseas. I tried my hand at a baklava recipe from allrecipes.com and was really happy with the way it turned out.  I've noted below a few tips I  followed from the reviews that made this treat nice, flaky, and delicious.

Baklava 
• 1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough (thawed)
• 1 pound chopped nuts
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C). Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 inch pan.

Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep.

Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows the make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.

Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers. This freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.

*** Here are a few reviewer tips I found really helpful***
 
1) Lightly roast nuts prior to chopping (walnuts turn out nicely).
2) Make 1 1/2 times sauce recipe calls far.
3) Make sauce AHEAD of recipe, and put in the fridge to cool. By pouring the cool syrup on the warm baklava it will turn out crispy.
4) Cook at 325F until browned on top (I have found 350F a little too high)
5) Do not cut the dough and do not cover it while layering.  Just drape the bottom half over the pan and then fold the top half over it, "painting" a thin layer of butter quickly.
6) Lightly brush on the butter; do not saturate.
7)  When you cut the baklava before baking, use a sharp knife and cut within a half inch from the bottom of the pan, so then when you pour the sauce into the cooled baklava, the sauce seeps into every layer of the baklava, but doesn't sit at the bottom.  Then, cut all the way through after the whole thing has completely cooled.