Emily Psomas’ Baklava
Emily Psomas is my very good friend Mary’s mom. A few years ago I called Mary and asked, okay, begged, for her baklava recipe. Her parents are from Greece, and excellent cooks and I remembered their wonderful baklava back when we were kids. Mary’s mom kindly shared the recipe with me- and it really is amazing. Time consuming- but SO worth it!
8 x 11 1/2 baking pan (2-quart baking pan)
1/4 cup cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
(2) 2.3-oz bags chopped walnuts
2 cups honey (use Sue Bee Honey)
phyllo dough- thawed, unrolled and kept under damp towel.
1 orange peel (Just the orange part, though, try to remove most of the white stuff)
1 lb. unsalted butter (MUST be unsalted)
Prepare Walnut Mixture:
Combine walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl.
(Taste to make sure it’s sweet or cinnamon-y enough.)
Melt Butter: In saucepan over medium-low heat.
Make sure it doesn’t burn or become brown.
Brush the bottom of the baking pan with melted butter. Place 3-4 layers of phyllo in the pan. Brush top layer of phyllo with butter using pastry brush (don’t be afraid if there are small pockets of butter here or there; the butter should saturate the bottom layers as well — you don’t want the phyllo to be dry or it will stick). Drizzle a layer of the walnut mixture evenly over phyllo. Add 3-4 more layers of phyllo over the walnut mixture. Brush top layer of phyllo with butter. Drizzle walnut mixture evenly over phyllo. Repeat (about 4 times) until you reach the top of the pan. The top layer is just phyllo; don’t top with walnut mixture. Brush the top layer of phyllo with butter.
Cut the baklava:
Make about 4-5 lengthwise cuts in the baklava, about 2 inches apart. Then make about 6-8 cuts width-wise, at a diagonal. Each piece is roughly the shape of a parallelogram, and about 2 x 3 inches.
Bake:
At 350 degrees for about 1/2 hour. Keep an eye on it; baklava is done when top layer of phyllo is golden-brown and sides of baklava “separate” from sides of baking pan. Don’t burn!
Honey topping:
Heat approximately 2 cups of honey and the orange rind (just drop it right in the honey) in a saucepan over low heat — it should gently simmer, but not be a roiling boil — for about 10-15 minutes until honey thins out and becomes “syrupy” in consistency.
When the baklava is done, take it out of the oven and IMMEDIATELY pour the honey topping over it. Make sure to saturate the whole thing evenly; don’t forget the corners. It should not be “dry” anywhere. THE BAKLAVA MUST BE HOT when this happens, otherwise the syrup sinks straight to the bottom of the baking pan and is not absorbed by the phyllo. (It is okay if the syrup is not hot, however.)
Allow baklava to absorb the syrup and cool (about 1-2hours).
Wednesday,
June
4,
2008