Baklava- sweet and delicious!

A popular and favorite middle eastern/turkish/greek dessert!

Ingredients:
1 roll of fillo/phyllo dough (usually 9x12 inch, 20-24 sheets) thawed
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon canola oil
½ cup toasted almonds
½ cup toasted walnuts
Any other types of nuts that you like (pistachios, pecans, etc.)
½ cup toasted coconut
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
Honey

What to do…

  1. In a food processor, process almonds, walnuts, coconut, sugar, and cinnamon. You can put in a little at a time. Process until finely ground. The biggest piece should be no bigger than the size of a small pea. Set aside in a bowl.
  2. In a saucepan, melt one stick of butter. Set aside.
  3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  4. Brush a baking tray evenly with melted butter.
  5. Place 2 sheets of fillo dough on the baking try. Be gentle because fillo dough rips very easily.
  6. Brush the sheets completely with butter.
  7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until you’ve used up half the fillo sheets (if you start off with 24, stop at 12. Start off with 20, stop at 10).
  8. Evenly spread out the nut/sugar mixture that you prepared earlier. Drizzle honey on top.
  9. Now repeat steps 5 and 6 until you finish all the fillo sheets.
  10. For the very top layer, brush with canola oil instead of butter.
  11. Using a sharp knife, cut baklava into pieces BEFORE placing in the oven. Fillo dough is almost impossible to cut after it has been baked.
  12. Place in the oven on the middle rack for 20-30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Watch it carefully because it burns easily. It may take up to 50 minutes. Check every 10 minutes after it has been in the oven for 20 minutes.
  13. Take the baking tray out of the oven and place on a cool surface.
  14. As soon as it comes out of the oven, drizzle as much honey as you want on top. Make sure all pieces are covered in honey.

The Turks used 40 pieces dough for a tray of baklava.