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.
Wow June was a crazy crazy month and it seems like July might end up being just about as crazy. I did manage to get my baklava made during June, however it has taken me almost a week to get the post up. I had good intentions to do so earlier, but due to a crazy allergic reaction episode and then starting a new job all while studying for the GMAT and planning a week long trip and a serious move I think my good intentions got thrown by the wayside. Anyways, on to the challenge.
When I first looked at the challenge I was definitely worried. I’ve made baklava before and it wasn’t terrible, but my own phyllo – that had me worried. I don’t always have a good track record with rolling dough and I don’t have much rolling space, but I determined to do it and if I found myself in a last minute emergency situation I could always pull out the store bought dough. I read other people’s advice and decided to use 00 flour instead of all purpose, which ended up being amazing. Overall, the whole dough rolling experience was a great one. I now feel better about my dough working skills and am confident that I could take on other pastries with a fair chance for success.
As for the overall evaluation of the baklava, I would honestly just use store bought dough the next time. While the homemade route was a neat experience, I think I prefer the machine rolled dough because it is lighter and thinner. I would consider using the dough recipe in the future however if I decided to attempt a strudel of some variety.
I chose a traditional filling of pistachios, almonds, and walnuts, with sugar and cinnamon. I also used clarified butter to make my layers crisper (not sure if that’s really a word or not) and then I used a honey, water, sugar syrup for the top. All of my liquid was soaked up nicely by my baklava. All of my taste testers seemed to really enojoy this challenge, and I know I throughly enjoyed mine with my afternoon tea and one the first rainy days we’ve had all summer. If you want the recipe or have any questions let me know and enjoy the photos.
My dough that managed to make 20 sheets.
The rolling process used LOTS of flour and took about and hour and a half.
After rolling each sheet, I then cut the edges to fit a 9x9 square pan.
Clarified butter waiting to go between the layers. The thicker layer at the bottom is actually the fat. Clarified butter, also referred to as ghee, is healthier than just regular butter.
I used five sheets of phyllo with butter on every 2 sheets and would then do a layer of the nut mixture.
Cut and ready for baking - I was getting excited by this point.
Got my syrup all ready to be poured on the baklava.
Done baking and ready for the syrup bath.
After adding the syrup, I let it sit for a few hours until everything was soaked up.
Getting ready to enjoy the yumminess! Look at all those layers.
i need an update on your life. asap.