Lazy Baklava

Stella8037's Note:

I wanted a dessert for a Greek-themed dinner, but the only one I could think of was baklava, and I don't like working with those sheets of phyllo. This is a nice easy preparation with all the flavor of the original!

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 10

Yield: 30.0 tarts

Syrup

• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick (or 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• lemon peel (without pith - 3 inch-long piece)
• orange peel (without pith - 3 inch-long piece)

Filling

• 2 cups coarsley ground walnuts
• 1 cup coarsley ground almonds
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 small pinch ground cloves
• 1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

1. Make syrup first so that it can cool before topping: In a small saucepan, combine honey, sugar and water. Bring to a low boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Add lemon juice, cinnamon sticks and peels and cook uncovered over medium heat for 10 minutes, until slightly thickened. Remove peels and cinnamon sticks and allow to come to room temperature before using.
2. Combine walnuts, almonds, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and 1 ½ tablespoons melted butter together in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
3. Spoon nut filling into phyllo cups and bake according to package directions, 10-15 minutes. (It’s neater if you fill the cups over the bowl of filling.).
4. Allow cups to cool for 10 minutes. Spoon room temperature syrup over cups. Allow to stand covered, at least 3 hours or overnight.
5. Note: I used the last of my honey for this recipe, so after the syrup had come completely to room temperature, I used a funnel to pour it back into the honey bottle. Then when topping the cups I just squeezed syrup onto each one – that saved a lot of sticky mess.