This past weekend was Easter. My family all gathered around to celebrate the holiday together. We decorated the garage to look “Middle Eastern” and set a table to resemble the upper room. It was very make shift with bright table cloths and candles, but it was fun.

I catered the food from a Greek restaurant because I didn’t think I could cook lamb and make it taste very good. We also had eggs, olives, salad, and pitas. I ordered baklava as well, but there were only a few pieces in the order. Instead of buying more, I decided to try my hand at making my own Baklava. I’m glad I did! It was fairly easy and so yummy!

For those of you who don’t know what Baklava is, it is a mixture of chopped nuts and sugar spread between thin, buttered sheets of pastry fillo dough and covered in syrupy goodness. It is SWEET, nutty, delicate, and crisp.

The hardest part of making Baklava is finding the fillo dough. Be sure to get the SHEETS not the thicker pastry .

It comes in a long box in the frozen section of the grocery store. I had to go to two different stores to find it, but it was there. Yea!

Working with the dough wasn’t hard, but it was a bit finicky. The key is to wait until it is COMPLETELY thawed before you unroll it. If you don’t, it will break. Don’t worry, if it cracks, you can still use it. Baklava is supposed to be flaky anyway. It’s all good!

Here is my version of the recipe–

Baklava-

Recipe by Tracy @It’s T-Sweets Day!

Ingredients:

• 3c pecans or walnuts
• 1c sliced almonds
• 1/2c granulated sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 pkg fillo dough
• 2c melted butter

Directions–

• Combine all nuts, sugar, and spices in a food processor and finely chop.
• Lay open roll of Fillo dough on a buttered jelly roll pan
• Working from the left side of the dough, fold all but 3 or 4 pieces of the dough back to the right . They should fold like a book
• Using a brush, heavily “paint” the butter on the open sheets.
• Sprinkle with nut mixture.
• Unfold 3-5 more slices turning them back to the left like turning the page of a book
• Repeat the butter and nut layers until all of the dough is used. Be sure to not put nuts on the very top layer.
• Fold the right half of the dough over to the left and repeat the butter and nut layers. They do not need to be exactly the same as the left side.
• Cut into diagonals
• Bake at 350* for 50 min. or until crisp and golden.
• Make syrup while Baklava is baking
• When baking is done, remove Baklava and pour syrup evenly over all.
• Let sit for several hours or better yet, overnight until all of the syrup is absorbed.

Syrup—

• 3c sugar
• 1/4 c lemon juice
• 2tsp cinnamon
• 1c water

Combine all syrup ingredients in a pot. Bring to a boil. Boil for one minute.

FINISHED!!

I know you are going to LOVE this Baklava recipe:). Please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think!