Title: Baklava To Kill for > Pt 2
Categories: Dessert Pastry
Yield: 1 Servings

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Cut the pastry into diamond shapes, all the way through. My great aunt used an electric knife, and thought it made the cutting very easy. If you don't have one, use a *VERY* sharp knife. If it's not sharp, it's a real pain/disaster cutting the pastry. Make sure you cut all the way through the pastry.

I cut down the length of the pan, and then diagonally to make the diamonds. See the cutting diagram below. All the cuts are continuous, even if the diagram looks differently.

The first two lengthwise cuts are just inside the pan edges, so that all the diamond's are perfect, and then I make the remaining lengthwise cuts dividing the pastry into equal strips. The diagonal cuts start at the top of the vertical cuts. This leaves thin small strips and small triangles at the pan edges and are a cooks/helpers treat after baking.

You can make the diamonds as large or small as you like, but I usually cut about 6-8 horizontal diamonds across, about 1 - 1.5 inch wide diamonds, across short length of the pan.

Sprinkle the top with water.

Put the pastry into a preheated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven. Bake for 1 hour, the top should be a medium golden brown when done.

When done, remove from the over and ladle the cool syrup over the hot pastry. Hot pastry - cool syrup, cool pastry - hot syrup. Let it sit for about 5-15 minutes, then drain off the excess syrup by tilting the pan, as much as as much as 45 degrees.

Let it cool to near room temperature before taking the baklava up, if you can wait, but you can eat those thin edges now, if you want. :-)

Using cup-cake cups (metalized outside, paper inside) makes a good way to put them on a platter for serving, or to put out for guests to take, as on a buffet.

All told, it takes about an hour to make and an hour to bake.

Makes 60 to 90 pieces, depending upon size.

This baklava keeps well and freezes well, although I've never found a need to freeze it, it just disappears too fast. :-)

NOTES :

The lemon keeps the syrup from crystallizing.

Don't worry about broken sheets, or stuck together sheets of phyllo, just piece them together and butter it down. Depending on the size of the pan you use and the size of the phyllo sheets, you probably will not fit the pan exactly, if it hangs over the edges, just fold it back over to the inside of the pan, and butter it down. Do this every 2-4 sheets. If the pan is slightly too big, just lay the phyllo well into each corner or if only one dimension is too large then alternate sides to get coverage. Remember there are a lot of sheets and it all works out, just have no fear. Turn the overlying edges in and butter them down.

Cutting diagram:

From: Steve Thomas Date: 26 Mar 97 Chile-Heads List Ä

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