Hookah Time Baklava

Photo: Zomppa

Ingredients

For syrup:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1/2 cup honey

1 lemon, halved

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or 2 short cinnamon sticks

A drop of rosewater (optional)

For baklava:

1 pound of phyllo dough (1 package)

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

2 cups chopped walnuts

1 cup chopped almonds

1 cup chopped pistachios

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preparation

Syrup

Combine sugar, water, honey, cinnamon and lemon juice in a saucepan, and bring to a boil.

Reduce to medium heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and leave at room temperature until mixture has cooled. (You can also prepare and refrigerate the syrup a couple days prior).

Baklava

Thaw phyllo dough overnight or per manufacturer instructions.

After thawing, roll out the dough and cut sheets in half if needed to fit pan. (Cover exposed dough with clean damp kitchen towel to avoid the sheets drying out).

Grease a 9×13 inch pan and preheat oven to 350°F.

Finely chop or process the nuts with their skins. Feel free to use your own ratio of walnuts to almonds and pistachios and generously add more walnuts.

Combine the nuts with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg cardamom, and cloves.

Place a sheet of phyllo into the pan. Using a pastry brush generously paint the sheet with melted butter. Repeat this 8 times to create the bottom layer of phyllo.

On the ninth buttered sheet of phyllo spread about a cup of the nut mixture evenly over it. Cover with two more sheets of phyllo, brushing each one individually.

Repeat the layering until the mixture is used up (3-4 more times).

The top layer of phyllo dough should be 8-10 sheets. Butter the top sheet.

Cut into 24 equal diamond shapes using a sharp knife.

Bake 30-40 minutes until a crisp golden brown.

Immediately after the baklava is removed from the oven spoon the cool syrup over the entire pan and let stand at room temperature for about 5 hours.

Garnish with finely crushed pistachio morsels.