Baklava is a fascinating dessert. Despite its simplicity, there are so many recipe versions for making it. And, despite its simplicity, it is actually possible to fail creating a tasty baklava. Just go into most ordinary shops: they’ll sell you a dry, flavorless imitation of baklava. A real shame.

Baklava – when successful – has a soft sweet taste with a crunchy background that will appeal to anyone. Even to those who are not particularly fond of sugarish desserts… such as my mother-in-law.

See, I just came back from a short “business” trip to France, where my husband and I stayed at my parents-in-law. And, this time, my mother-in-law had bought phyllo dough for me as I had promised her a while ago to teach her how to make baklava – a dessert I regularly make and which marked her after seeing a touching movie.

So let me resume the situation: I had to demonstrate baklava making to my mother-in-law (!) who dislikes desserts (!!), especially sugarish ones (!!!), and who was unaware of how sweet it had to be since she had never had baklava before (∞!).

To top that, while I had made it many times before, I had never actually written down my recipe with precise quantities. Therefore, although always good, the results varied. Of course, neither variation, nor “good results” are an option in such cases. I needed perfection.

That meant only one thing. I had to do a test run so I could make proper adjustments if needed. And so I did, just a day before flying off.

Baklava

Ingredients

(To comfortably fit into a 10x15inch or 12x17inch pan. Or even smaller if you prefer baklava with many layers.)

For the baklava:
1 package phyllo dough
2 sticks melted butter (1 cup)
1lb crushed/grinded walnuts (I personally like to have pieces of various size from small to very small)
1½tbsp cinnamon
3-4 oz sugar

For the sugar syrup:
1½ tsp vanilla extract
juice of 1 lemon + zest from about 1/3 of it
3 cups water
1½ cup + 2 tbsp sugar (to be used at once)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Mix the mixture ingredients together (walnuts, cinnamon, sugar). Now be prepared to work quickly with the phyllo dough so it doesn’t dry — exposure to air turns it quickly into flaky sheets, and it becomes a pain to work with.
3. Brush the pan with melted butter; open the phyllo dough package, place two phyllo sheets, brush with butter , and then place one more (=total of 3 phyllo sheets for the bottom). Brush that last one too.
4. Spread some of the baklava mixture evenly (make sure that even the borders get some mixture) — you should have enough for 4-5 layers. Place a phyllo sheet. Brush with butter. Repeat the procedure for a second one. (Total of 2 phyllo sheets between layers).
5. Repeat step #4 until you reach your last layer of baklava mixture (4th or 5th). Then, instead of 2 phyllo sheets, use 3, buttering each.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes. (Depending on your oven it can take anything between 25 and 35min. The best indication will be the golden color of the baklava. I could have left mine for a couple more minutes — it should have been slightly darker in color, but was in a hurry.)
7. While your baklava is baking, or rather about 15 minutes into the baking process, start preparing the syrup. Place the sugar and water in sauce pan; bring to boil and then switch to simmering. Five minutes later, add lemon zest and half of the juice, as well as the vanilla. Wait a couple of minutes and taste the syrup. If the lemon juice isn’t overpowering the syrup, you should be able to add more. (I’ve discovered that some lemons have a much stronger taste influence than others which is why I don’t add it all at once. If you are feeling confident though, you can pour it all at once.) Keep the syrup on the stove for a total of 12 minutes. Finally remove the lemon zest using a strainer.
8. As soon as your baklava is ready and out of the oven, pour the syrup over it.
9. Let rest for 12 hours/overnight.
10. Enjoy 😉