Baklava, eat it and be international!

I want to begin by thanking the Assyrians for creating the first dish of Baklava, although it is quite upsetting that the original recipe was so fancy that only the rich could afford to eat it, and only seldomly, despite its deliciousness. The Greeks of course also deserve a lot of credit considering the fact that their contribution to Baklava is phyllo dough,which is equivalent to magic when you brush butter onto it and bake it! Phyllo dough being essential to the creation of this deliciousness. The history of Baklava is of course much more detailed than what I have just composed, but the most important fact that you must be aware of is that it is amazingly delicious and you will not regret baking it and consuming its tastiness! And though it may sound difficult, it is merely time consuming, the actual recipe is quite simple really, I promise.

The Ingredients:Butter, Phyllo dough,one orange, one lemon, diced nuts (traditionally pistachios but you can use almost anything. For example walnuts or pecans),cinnamon, honey and sugar.


Zest the lemon. This does not require you to have a microplane grater, we just wanted to be fancy for a moment.

Mix the zested lemon with sugar and cinnamon.

Next, melt the butter in the microwave.

put two layers of phyllo dough on the pan and then brush the top layer with butter. Repeat this step two more times.
Sprinkle half of the walnuts over the sixth layer after buttering it.

Then, add half of the sugar,cinnamon and lemon mixture to the pan.


Continue layering the pan with phyllo dough and buttering every two layers,until you've placed six more layers in the pan.

Sprinkle the rest of the walnuts along with the rest of the sugar,cinnamon and lemon mixture.

Guess what comes next. I've got some delectable redundancy in store for you.In other words,begin layering on the phyllo dough two at a time and then buttering the second layer until you've either used up all of the phyllo dough or reached the top of the pan.

Cut the baklava into squares of any size that you desire. Now stick it in the oven!

Meanwhile...measure out the honey.

squeeze lemon juice into a bowl.

Peel an orange into strips leaving none of the white part of the peel on the strips.
Or if you want to use fancy terminology, zest the orange in strips. Sadly, we are not in possession of a microplane grater that will make this task easy.

Combine all of these ingredients that you have properly measured out and prepared.

Bring it to a boil and lit it boil for...a while...15 minutes maybe...

Afterwords scoop out all those orange strips. My apologies for the dark picture...I did my best to make it better, but to no avail...

Now pour the mixture over your baked baklava. This might be scary, after all, nobody wants soggy baklava, but it wont be soggy, I promise. It will be simply sticky. Sticky and delicious.

See how shiny it looks? Shiny and delicious.
Now let it sit for 4 hours. Yes...four hours. 4. It is worth it. I promise.

After you wait for four hours enjoy the Baklava and imagine that you are Assyrian or maybe Greek just because you can!

Baklava

3 cups coarsely chopped nuts
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 pound phyllo dough
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups water
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Zest of one orange, removed in large strips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Stir together sugar lemon zest and cinnamon. Melt butter. Make sure your phyllo dough is the same size as your baking pan (13x9). Place 2 sheets of dough in the pan and brush with butter, repeat this two more times. Sprinkle with half of nuts and half of the sugar mixture. Cover this with 2 more sheets and brush this with butter. Repeat this step two more times again. Sprinkle with other half of nuts and sugar. Place two more sheets of dough, and brush with butter. Repeat this until all dough is gone or your pan is full. Using a sharp knife, cut through the layers to make approximately 2 inch squares. You should be able to make 30. Bake for 30 min. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 and bake for another 45-60 min. During the last 30 min of the cook time combine water, honey, lemon juice, orange zest and the rest of the sugar and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 min. Strain the hot syrup and pour evenly over the baked baklava. Let cool on a rack at room temperature for at least 4 hours before serving. Enjoy!