Wanna Green Bean

2 March 2008

Baklava x 2

In the past week I have made two different types of baklava. One traditional style with sheets of phyllo and nuts, another with phyllo, nuts, and a custard.

The traditional name for custard baklava is Baklava Muhalabiyya in Arab cuisine, and Galaktoboureko in Greek cuisine. There is a difference between the two, the greek custard contains eggs, where the Arab custard does not.

Seeing the custard baklava got my brain wheels a turning. What would happen if I combined the traditional nut baklava with the tasty new custard baklava that I found?

The results are mixed. The custard in the baklava I created is only okay for a day or two, whereas nut baklava usually gets better with age. Add to that fact the forgetting of the dish on food day at work, and not having the will to actually eat an entire pan of the stuff, leads to kind of runny sugar syrupy, custard lumpy, but the nuts and the top phyllo still tasty as can be.

So that recipe is a half fail at the moment.

Because that was slightly a fail, and I still had plenty of phyllo left over, I mad a smaller pan of traditional nut Baklava, but only with pecans instead of walnuts or pistachios. Its my Baklava, I’m using pecans if I want to.

So in this post I will cover how to make the custard for custard baklava, the filling for the nut baklava, how to assemble, and the sugar syrup that tops each and makes them super tasty.

Sugar Syrup

It is best if you make the syrup first. It needs to be cool when you pour it over the just out of the oven baklava. If it is still warm when poured, instead of cooking and bubbling when it hits the hot dish, it will just soak into the phyllo and make it soggy.

Ingredients:
1 c sugar
1 c honey
1 1/2 c water
2 tbsp lemon juice

Combine all of the above ingredients in a heavy saucepan.

Bring mixture to a boil, stirring so the sugar dissolves.

Boil for about 5 minutes, without stirring until it forms a thick clear syrup.

Set aside to let it cool completely, not moving it or moving it as little as possible.

The Custard Filling

Ingredients:

6 cups of whole milk
1 c semolina flour
3 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 c white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 eggs
1/2 c white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Bring the milk to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat.

In a medium bowl whisk together the semolina, cornstarch, 1 cup of sugar and salt so there are no clumps.

When the milk comes to a boil, gradually add the semolina mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

Cook stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and returns to a full boil.

Remove from heat and set aside.

Beat the eggs until the yolks are broken and slightly mixed.

Add 1/2 c up of sugar,

and whip until thick and pale about 10 minutes. (10 minutes here people, I’m not kidding.)
(Before – dark yellow, After – light yellow)

Stir in vanilla.

Fold the whipped eggs into the hot semolina mixture, cover lightly with plastic wrap (to keep from getting that nasty milk film on the top of it), and set aside to cool.

Nut Filling:
1 lb walnuts finely chopped or coarsely ground, or pistachio (I used pecans, because I like pecans, but walnuts or pistachios are traditional)
1/4 c sugar
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

There are many different blends for Baklava fillings, search the internet and experiment to find one that you like. According to a taste tester, this one has an apple pie flavor because of the cinnamon and cloves.

Finely chop the nuts, by hand, by blender, or food processor. Use whichever method you have available and are comfortable with. I don’t have a cutting board yet, so I put my blender to use. (Living in different houses and using what they already have leads to having a blender, but not a cutting board.)

Mix together the chopped nuts, sugar, cinnamon and cloves.

Set aside.

Assembly:

You will need:
Approximately 1/2-1 cup clarified butter (see below)
A pastry brush
One package of phyllo dough

Clarified Butter

To make clarified butter for this recipe melt two sticks of butter in a microwave safe bowl, do not stir while the butter is melting. Otherwise you will have to wait for the butter to separate.

When the butter is done melting there should be three layers, a fluffy white layer on top, a translucent yellow layer in the middle, and thick white fatty looking layer on the bottom.

Skim the foamy layer off the top, using a spoon and a paper towel.

When the majority of the foamy white stuff has been skimmed off the top, carefully pour the translucent yellow liquid into another bowl, making sure none of the white goop on the bottom goes with it.

This translucent yellow liquid is the clarified butter.

It helps to read up on Baklava and working with phyllo dough before starting, this is a very handy guide written by an at home Baklava baker.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Set up your working station:

Setting up the work station is important. Phyllo dough dries out very quickly so you have to work just as fast. The basics of what you will need are phyllo dough, clarified butter, pastry brush, a damp towel, plastic wrap and a water spritzer. Have both or either filling close at hand as well.

Note that most of the images below are from my nut only Baklava, using a 9 × 9 inch glass baking dish. The images with the 9 × 13 inch baking dish are from my custard/nut combination. I had my roommate take the pictures this time too, so you get to see both hands! (And no, those are not my pajamas, really…)

Roll out your phyllo dough onto the waxy sheet that comes with it, or onto some wax paper. Cover with the damp towel and plastic wrap.

Brush down the dish you are making this in with the butter.

Lay in the first layer.

If your phyllo sheets are larger than your dish (like below) lay one side into the dish with part of it hanging over the edge. Spread butter onto the portion on the bottom of the dish with the pastry brush. Fold over the extra edge then brush that with butter as well.

Go lightly with the butter, you don’t want to drown the sheets of dough.

Continue building layers like this brushing each one lightly with butter before adding the next until there are 8-10 layers of dough in the dish.

If your dough is longer than your dish, but not twice as wide, alternate sides that the dough folds over on. That way there is the same number of layers on each side, and your desert isn’t lopsided.

If you notice your damp towel is getting a little too dry, and your phyllo is becoming brittle, spritz the towel with water lightly. If you soak the towel it will get the phyllo wet and it will stick together.

Pour in your filling, and even it out (for both the custard and the nuts). I wanted more than one layer of nuts, so I reserved about half of them for later.

Lay another layer of dough on the filling and brush with butter. Be careful if you are using the nut filling, it is easy to tear the dough at this point, especially if you are using a sticky brush, since it doesn’t stick to the nuts very well. The dough sticks very well to the custard though, and I didn’t have any problem with tearing at this layer.

If you do tear the dough (which is likely), just piece it back together the best you can and brush it gently with the butter. I have found it didn’t matter too much with tearing except the top layer, but that is only because I wanted a pretty top layer.

Add about 8-10 more layers, brushing with butter between each, as directed above.

If you are just using one layer of filling you can stop at this point. If you are using more than one continue, adding another layer of filling, then another 8-10 layers of dough, and so on, until you have as many layers as you would like, or until you run out of filling.

I don’t recommend having multiple layers of the custard. The dough in the middle is likely to become soggy and ick, it works best with one solid layer in the middle of flakey dough.

You can add as many layers of dough at a time you would like, its your Baklava. Most recipes I found recommended 8-10 and I found it worked well in mine.

When you get to the very top layer of dough, using a nice solid piece of phyllo press it onto the top of the dish. If like in my case, your phyllo is larger than your dish, lay what would be the extra in the dish and brush with butter first, or trim a sheet to the proper size. Lay over the larger piece to cover the entire dish with one solid piece of dough.

Using a VERY sharp knife carefully slice through the top layer of dough.

Do not cut through the bottom layer. If you only have one layer of filling (like with the custard) only cut through the top layer. If you have multiple layers slice through them, but not the bottom one. The cuts make the top bake golden and crispy and pretty, and leave space for the sugar syrup to flow through the entire dish. Cutting directions can be found on this site.

Spritz lightly with water

Bake 40-45 minutes if you have a custard filling, and 30-35 for a nut filling. I have seen recipes that have you bake the phyllo for up to an hour. Take the Baklava out of the oven when the top is golden brown and crispy looking. The custard does need to be in the oven for at least 40 minutes though so that the custard can cook long enough to set.

Immediately after removing it from the oven pour the sugar syrup over it making sure to pour some on all of it getting into the corners and along the edges.

Allow the dish to cool completely. COMPLETELY.

When cool, using a sharp knife, slice through the baklava, following the cuts already made, slicing all the way through to the bottom.

The custard Baklava is best eaten within the first day or two. After that it gets soggy and liquid-y.

On the other hand the nut baklava gets tastier with age. I’m not sure how long until it goes bad. It never lasts very long.

Enjoy.

Tags: baked, dessert, easy, snacks, sweet, vegetarian

March 02, 2008, 07:56:13 PM | Permalink | Subscribe | Stumble It! |