Greek Baklava

Rita~'s Note:

Sweet and Nutty!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 10

• 1 lb phyllo pastry , thawed if frozen
• 1 cup butter , melted at room temp
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups chopped walnuts
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• ¼ cup honey

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Layer half of the sheets of phyllo one sheet at a time, in a greased 11x7x2 baking pan, brushing each sheet evenly with butter and folding ends over if necessary to fit into pan.
2. Keep unused sheets covered with plastic wrap while assembling baklava to prevent drying.
3. Mix 1/4 cup of the sugar and cinnamon; stir in walnuts.
4. Sprinkle nut mixture evenly over buttered phyllo in pan.
5. Layer remaining phyllo, one sheet at a time, over nut mixture, brushing each sheet evenly with butter.
6. Cut diagonally into squares, cutting completely through all layers.
7. Bake in preheated oven until crisp and golden, about one hour.
8. Combine remaining sugar, the water, lemon juice and honey in small saucepan; cook and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.
9. Heat to boiling; pour evenly over hot baklava.
10. Let stand loosely covered 8 hours or overnight.

Reviews

[canarygirl]

Baklava is one of my all time favorite desserts. This was my first time actually making some on my own! I wasn't sure what temp to put the oven on, it wasn't specified, so I put it at 375º, and that was a bit high, my baklava browned within 1/2 hour. So, I recommend 350º or maybe even 325º. The flavor is a bit lemony, next time I would reduce the lemon juice to 3 tablespoons or even 2. It was delicious though! Thank you for posting!

[littlemafia]

Hey,I can make baklava now! Made this for DDs birthday party and everyone wanted to try them. The one in the picture was saved just so I could photograph it ! I had a little trouble with step 9,when I poured the hot syrup over the hot baklava it evaporated very fast, so if you like a more syrupy baklava pour the syrup after five minutes.I managed to burn the bottom,but just a little bit and this made my baklava different,eveyone was going :"What do I taste?"Cinnamon,no.Lemon,no,it's something different. The secret didn't get out. I'll make this for every holiday that requires sweets. Thanks for teaching me how to make baklava!Update: Made it three times in a month! In the last photos I used puff pastry and it still worked.

[D Rusak]

Woo-hoo! This is simple and so good. I made this for a Balkan buffet I mysteriously just got put in charge of. Only changes I made: I substituted rose water since I was out of lemons, and sliced it into 36 pieces. Use a good honey (I hear Greek thyme is best; I used orange blossom raw honey).