Homemade Baklava
There are a few good baklava, like one that our friend makes while there are a lot of too sweet sugary sticky baklava. I had been interested in making some by myself for years, but I needed an occasion to do so. Luckily finally I had one this time. I adapted a recipe from Cooks Illustrated with just one change: replacing 2 oz of 8oz blanched slivered almonds with pistachio because I like green pistachio color in baklava. Making clarified butter was a kind of troublesome but important step to bake baklava beautifully. Maybe the assembling process was a sort of troublesome. 8 layers of phyllo sheets + 1 cup nut mixture + 6 layers of phyllo + 1 cup nuts +6 layers of phyllo + 1 cup nuts + 8 layers of phyllo = baklava. So there were total 28 layers that I brushed with butter gently one by one.
Cut baklava before baking. I have never thought about when you cut baklava. I see, it would be difficult to do so after baking because they are so fragile. Plus, the cut helps each baklava absorb the sugar syrup.
After baking, pour spiced sugar-honey syrup over while baklava was still hot. Syrup was sizzling!
The recipe said let it cool for 3 hours and rest it with cover for 8 hours. Wait, wait and wait.
