Baklava - Phyllo Dough and all! - Daring Bakers June 2011

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

This recipe has 3 parts:  Phyllo Dough, Baklava Filling and Baklava Syrup.

What did I discover?

• This recipe takes quite a lot of time.  It took the best part of a Sunday afternoon to complete, plus overnight resting. 
• Phyllo pastry is surprisingly easy to make!  Once I got the hang of stretching it out, it was quite relaxing to make (provided you have the time).
• Note that you will need to make about 18 sheets of phyllo for layering so make them just a little bigger than your pan.  I made my sheets a bit too large (one sheet was probably about the size of 2 pans) so I ended up piecing sheets together to make enough for the middle layers.  I kept a few good pieces for the top layers and the end result turned out just fine.
• Flour is your friend!  I thought I floured pretty well but the pastry sheets still stuck to each other when I was ready to pull them apart for layering.
• Baklava is a fun word to say :)

The recipe below is my slightly tweaked version of the Daring Bakers recipe baked in a 6.5" x 10" baking pan.

Phyllo Dough

If necessary, dough can be made a head of time and frozen.  Just remove from freezer, allow to thaw

and continue making your baklava.

2 2/3 cups (185 gm) unbleached all purpose (plain) flour

1/4 teaspoon  salt

1 cup less 2 tablespoon (105 ml) water, plus more if needed

4 tablespoons (60 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer combine flour and salt
2. Mix with the paddle attachment
3. Combine water, oil and vinegar in a small bowl
4. Add water & oil mixture with mixer on low speed, mix until you get a soft dough, if it appears dry add a little more water.
5. Change to the dough hook and let knead on the lowest speed for approximately 10 minutes. You will end up with beautiful smooth dough. If you are kneading by hand, knead approx. 20 minutes.
6. Remove the dough from mixer and continue to knead for 2 more minutes. Pick up the dough and through it down hard on the counter a few times during the kneading process.
7. Shape the dough into a ball and lightly cover with oil
8. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let rest 30-90 minutes, longer is best (I let mine rest 2 hours and it was good)

2 hours later....

Rolling your Phyllo

- remove all rings and jewelry so it does not snag the dough.

- use whatever means you have at your disposal to get the dough as thin as you can. 

- you won't get it as thin as store bought pastry which is made by machine.

- remember that the sheets only need to be a little larger than the size of your pan and you need 18 of them, so if your sheets come out much larger, start with a smaller piece of dough.

- I made 2 piles of phyllo sheets - a pile of torn ones and a pile of good ones, so I could use the good ones for the top layer(s).

1. Unwrap your dough and cut off a chunk about the size of a golf ball. While you are rolling be sure to keep the ball of dough covered so it doesn’t dry out.
2. Be sure to flour your hands, rolling pin and counter. As you roll you will need to keep adding flour, flour and more flour.  The good thing is, you can't over flour.
3. Roll out the dough a bit to flatten it out.
4. Wrap the dough around your rolling pin/dowel
5. Roll back and forth quickly with the dough remaining on the dowel (I tried this numerous times with my rolling pin and sort of got the hang of it, but ended up finding it much easier to stretch it out of the back of my hand/arm - see next step)
6. When you get it as thin as you can with the rolling pin, carefully pick it up with well floured hands and stretch it on the backs of your hands as you would a pizza dough, just helps make it that much thinner. Roll out your dough until it is transparent. 
7. Set aside on a well-floured surface. Repeat the process until all your dough is used up. Between each sheet again flour well. You will not need to cover your dough with a wet cloth, as you do with boxed dough, it is moist enough that it will not try out.

Baklava Filling

1 (5-inch/125 mm piece) cinnamon stick, broken into 2 to 3 pieces or 2 teaspoons (10 ml) (8 gm) ground cinnamon

few pinches ground cloves

3/4 cup raw or roasted cashews

3/4 cup raw or roasted hazelnuts

3/4 cup raw or roasted pistachios

2/3 cup (150) sugar

phyllo dough sheets (per the above recipe)

1/2 cup (~ 120 g) melted butter  (for brushing the dough sheets)

1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C.
2. Combine nuts, sugar and spices in a food processor and pulse on high until finely chopped. If you do not have a food processor chop with a sharp knife as fine as you can. Set aside.
3. Trim your phyllo sheets to fit in your pan
4. Brush bottom of pan with butter and place first phyllo sheet
5. Brush the first phyllo sheet with butter and repeat approximately 5 times ending with butter. (Most recipes say more, but homemade phyllo is thicker so it's not needed)
6. Sprinkle 1/3 of the nut mixture on top
7. Continue layering phyllo and buttering, repeating 4 times
8. Sprinkle 1/3 of the nut mixture on top
9. Continue layering phyllo and buttering, repeating 4 times
10. Sprinkle the last 1/3 of the nut mixture on top
11. Continue layering and buttering phyllo 5 more times. On the top layer, make sure you have a piece of phyllo with no holes if possible, just looks better.
12. Once you have applied the top layer tuck in all the edges which a flat edged spatula to give a nice appearance.
13. With a sharp knife cut your baklava in desired shapes (e.g. triangles, diamonds, squares) and number of pieces. If you can't cut all the ways through don’t worry you will cut again later. My 6.5" x 10" pan cuts nicely into 24 little triangles.  
14. Brush with a generous layer of butter making sure to cover every area and edge
15. Bake for approximately 20 minutes; remove from oven and cut again this time all the way through. Continue baking for another 20 minutes. (Oven temperatures will vary.  Watch closely for the top to be golden brown).

While you're waiting for the Baklava to bake, make the syrup...

Baklava Syrup

1 cup honey

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/2 a cinnamon stick

1 (2-inch/50 mm) piece fresh citrus peel (lemon or orange is best)

a few whole cloves or a pinch or ground clove

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium pot over medium high heat. Stir occasionally until sugar has dissolved
2. Boil for 10 minutes, stir occasionally.
3. Once boiled for 10 minutes remove from heat and strain cinnamon stick, lemon and whole cloves (if using) allow to cool as the baklava cooks.

Now that your baklava is cooked to a golden brown colour...

1. Remove from oven and pour the cooled (probably still be warmish) syrup evenly over the top, taking care to cover all surfaces when pouring.  Cover with syrup until all the gaps are filled to the top with the syrup.  It looks like it is a lot but over night the syrup will soak into the baklava creating a beautifully sweet and wonderfully textured baklava!
2. Allow the baklava to sit overnight to absorb the syrup.

The next morning...

Next morning all syrup is absorbed and voila... is good to eat!

Freezing/Storage Instructions/Tips: There are a few ways to store your Baklava. It is recommended that you store your baklava at room temperature in an airtight container. Stored at room temperature your baklava will last for up to 2 weeks. You will notice as the days pass it will get a little juicier and chewier. You may choose to store it in the fridge; this will make it a little harder and chewy, but does increase the shelf life. You can also freeze your baklava and then just set it out at room temperature to thaw.