The Nashville Greek Festival is happening September 25th - September 27th. At the festival you can expect food, dancing, shopping and more!
For information on the festival visit: https://www.nashvillegreekfestival.com/
Ingredients For Baklava Nut Mixture with Phyllo Dough
• 6 cups finely chopped walnuts
• 1 and 1/2 1lb package of phyllo dough (thawed)
• 2 sticks butter, melted
• Ground cloves
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup sugar
Ingredients for Simple Syrup
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons honey
• Orange rind
• Cinnamon stick
Special equipment: 9″ x 13″ pan and a pastry brush
Make the Baklava Filling Grind the nuts fine in a food processor and toss them with the cinnamon and sugar – set aside.
Butter a 9x13 baking dish and lay one sheet of filo in the bottom. The sheet is going to be larger than the pan, that’s okay! Just do a bit of scrunching or going up the edges.
Remove the phyllo dough from the package and unroll on the counter. It helps to cover with a damp cloth while you’re working, but in truth you just have to move at a good pace, or the phyllo will dry out.
Lightly butter the sheet and place another on top. Repeat this process until you have about 8 sheets layered in the bottom of the pan. Now make sure your nut mixture has been divided into 4 – and add 1/4 of ground nuts mixture. Layer and lightly butter 3 to 4 sheets of phyllo and then add more nuts, keep that pattern until you have a full 4 layers. The interior phyllo layers can be small. The important part is the decent bottom layer and heavy top layer. The top later should have about 10 sheets.
After you’ve added more butter on top and tucked corners to your liking – place the baklava in the fridge for about 30 minutes. This will help you be able to cut seamlessly.
Using a sharp knife, cut baklava before baking – Traditional pattern is halfway through the layers (lengthwise into 3, and crosswise into 4). Next cut each piece in half, diagonally to end up with 24 pieces total. Or make it easy and cut triangles.
Bake the Baklava
Bake in a 325°F oven for about 1 1/2 hours or until the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven. You really need to watch your oven. We believe in low and slow.
For the Syrup
Combine the water, honey, sugar, cinnamon stick, honey, and orange rind in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high until bubbling. Stir well. When the sugar is melted and the ingredients are well incorporated, remove from heat and let cool completely. Remove orange rind and cinnamon stick.
The last step is incorporating the syrup with the cooked baklava. The key is hot meets cold. We always use baklava right out of the oven and chilled syrup. You should ladle the syrup over the baklava and you should hear a sizzle. No sizzle, soggy baklava. Sizzle, crispy baklava!
Recipe furnished by Katina Stavrou of Elia Greek Market, www.oilofelia.com/
