My search for ingredients had began yesterday with a trip to No frills to buy the Phyllo dough, butter and almonds. Through the darkness caused by fog and rain I arrived at it's doors and walked around looking for the dough first. After not finding it after much searching I skipped it for now and went in search of the other ingredients on my list. I came upon butter first, but did not know what kind to get. After spending probably 10 minutes in front of the butter section comparing prices, ingredients and such (i'm one of those people) I finally made a decision. Then I found some almonds but they were very expensive so I thought I could find them cheaper somewhere else. So after dreaming about making Baklava, this morning I walked down to the IGA to see if they had Phyllo dough.
After meandered around the place again looking for the stuff I finally found it!! But wait, there was not just one but two brands to chose from. So after about 15 minutes of comparing them, (people in the store where probably wondering what the girl in the freezer aisle was doing starring at two boxes for so long), but Yes, I was reading the ingredients, and checking the expiry date and making sure that it was indeed the right stuff but they probably wouldn't understand.So I finally made a decision, and then went and got some almonds, (which were way over priced) and walked out to start the process of baking.
First I chopped up the walnuts I had gotten a few days ago and then I blended the almonds after almost cutting off my fingers when I thought it would be better to chop them by hand.
I started to cook the syrup which consisted of sugar, honey, lemon, cloves and cinnamon, mmm smelled pretty good.
This bubbled away for about 10 minutes while I mixed the almonds and walnuts together with more sugar and cinnamon.
After this, I got the butter out which I noticed was the wrong kind (I was suppose to get unsalted) but because I had already spent so much time running around finding the ingredients I ended up using it, and hopefully it will not effect the taste to much. So now after melting the wrong butter I grabbed my prized phyllo dough and ripped open the package.
The pan that I was planning on using for the Baklava was more of a square shape then a rectangle so I had to cut the Phyllo dough down the middle to make it fit. But then after I unrolled it I found out that I had cut it the wrong way and now it was really long strands of dough. To fix this I preceded to cut it again, hoping that it would turn out the way it is suppose to. As this was happening, I had to also be aware of the time because the dough dries out super quick (at least according to the recipe I was following). So working like really fast, I slathered and I mean SLATHERED the strips of dough with butter and placed them in the pan, layering them over each other. Then after about 10 layers I added about half the nut filling, covering it again with more layers, more BUTTER, until all the dough and nut mixer was gone. After all that, I cut the dough into triangle pieces (the recipe said that you must remember to do this before baking because it is virtually impossible to do after the Baklava is cooked) and shoved it in the oven.
HA!! I did it!
SO it is cooked, or hopefully cooked, I forgot to see what time it was when I put it in the oven so I don't know if it cooked all the way through. Anyway the air is filled with the smell of butter and pastry so judging by that it's done. Mmmm..
Now I just have to wait, and wait... and wait... until it soaks up all the syrup i just poured on it. Yes patience is a virtue.
So, next time, if there is another post, I say this because I do not know if I will survive what I just created, but if there is another one it will probably tell you how it turned out, (whether I am sick or extremely hyper due to the amount of sugar it this). And perhaps it will also give you some more info into what I will be doing differently next time.
Chow!!
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