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My neighbor, wonderful Greek woman, agreed to show me her method

Gorgeous. I am being haunted by baklava today, I was drooling over them at my local Turkish store. What was your neighbors method?

Mary

I was taking notes throughout and learning by doing. I just finished these notes and it is very close to what she did. I will proof them with her tomorrow. A lot of what she does is by feel and estimation so, if anything, the dry quantities for the filling are under estimated by maybe 10%. My goal is to do it again and take my electronic scale to be more precise. The syrup is pretty exact and she did not pour all of it in. I tried to capture her nuances in my descriptions.
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Baklava by Kay Agioritis

Filling:

4 cups almonds & walnuts, coarsely ground
1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon, ground
¼ teaspoon cloves, ground
4 heaping tablespoons sugar, white

1 pound butter, unsalted, clarified, warm

Syrup:
3.5 cups sugar, white
2.5 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
1.5 cups honey

2 packages phyllo pastry
Large pan big enough to hold phyllo sheets flat and about 2” high
Pastry brush

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325F and arrange a rack for the middle of the oven.

Mix together in large bowl: nuts, cinnamon, cloves, and sugar.

With pastry brush wipe all sides and bottom of pan with a thin layer of butter. Place one sheet of phyllo on bottom and lightly brush with butter. Repeat for 8 layers with final layer having no butter on top. By hand, add a sparse, thin layer of filling on top of last phyllo sheet. Place another phyllo on top of this, brush it with butter, and add another phyllo sheet on top of this with no butter on top of it. Add another sparse, thin layer of filling and repeat as before until you have 6 layers of filling. (To be clear, the phyllo sheet on to which the filling is added is not brushed with butter.) For the top, add 10 more sheets of phyllo, buttering each one and being sure to butter the top of the last layer.

With a very sharp paring knife, score all of this into 5 squares by 7 squares being absolutely sure to have the knife score through all of the layers to the bottom of the pan. Next, score each square in one direction diagonally. This will give you 70 triangles.

Place in oven for approximately 1 hour checking at 30 min., 40 min., 50 min., etc. until the phyllo starts to turn color. When it is a light tan, reduce heat to 275F – 250F and continue to bake until the phyllo becomes golden but not dark brown. Longer cooking at a lower temperature is the best – do not be in a hurry as the edges will be cooked before the middle. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Syrup: When baklava is almost cool combine white sugar, water, & cinnamon stick in large sauce pan and bring to a gentle boil for 3 minutes, stirring frequently to dissolve sugar completely. Add honey and continue gentle boil for 3 more minutes, cooking until a white froth forms. Skim and discard this white foam. Reduce heat to lowest temp. on smallest burner for 20 minutes. This will infuse the cinnamon. You may transfer this syrup to a large pitcher for pouring or use a large spoon to ladle or pour the very warm, but not hot, syrup along all of the scored edges and putting some on top of the phyllo. The very important trick here is to be adding the very warm to the quite cool. The goal is to have enough on top of the phyllo that is will form a sheen when cool but not a glaze. There should be enough syrup in the pan to come up to half of the height of the baklava.

DO NOT COVER. Leave on a perfectly flat surface overnight or at least 8 hours. The syrup will be almost completely absorbed into the baklava. Never store pieces on top of each other; this will destroy the crunch of the top layer. Once room temperature, baklava may be stored, covered, in the freezer.

Those look delicious!
fitzie

Thought this bore repeating and analysis...

Excellent and thanks for sharing!

--Lisa

Looks delicious, Wino! Been many years since I have made this.

Question for you: did you use the sweet version (barely melted, and separated) or the browned version of clarified butter? I did it both ways, and it was hard to choose between the sweet butter flavor, or that toffee like flavor of the browned butter. If I had more to share it with on Easter, I would have to try this.

Barely melted. Keep in mind that I am a rank amateur in this but I gave a sample of hers to a chef who worked on private yachts for the world's wealthiest; he said it was the best he had ever tasted! I am in love with this dessert and try it anywhere and will eat any quality of it (pig that I am) - it is my fave and it is the only one my wife will eat anywhere.
Having said all that, you browned butter idea has me drooling and I will try it very soon - THANKS!

Yum...now I want to make this. Thanks for sharing

One of my favorite places, there is a Halal butcher and everything. Just me and the Turks. Oh, great band name!

Mary