For the love of baklava

I (AM) had a lovely time making baklava this morning. As usual with phyllo, it took a while but was worth it. I used a combination of a recipe from All Recipes and what I recalled from making this one other time. The last time I made this was for my Greek Olympics Opening Ceremonies party in celebration of the Athens games. Here's the gist of it:



Baklava
approx. 1 stick butter
1/2 pkg. phyllo dough (find this in a box near the frozen pie crusts)
2 cups chopped pecans (I used walnuts)
1 1/2 cups water (I think this was a little too much)
1/3 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick (I used 2)
1 cup honey (we only had about 3/4 cup left, the full cup would be best)


Melt 1/2 stick butter. Melt more only if you need it later on. Brush bottom of a 9x13" pan with butter. Open one roll of phyllo dough from the box. Unroll it carefully, keeping the paper on the bottom of the stack.

Place one layer of phyllo in the bottom of the pan. Over the remaining stack with a piece of plastic wrap and a dampened towel. (Do this each time after you place a piece of dough. Be sure that the towel or anything wet doesn't directly touch the dough before you use it! The box has some other good tips if you've never worked with phyllo before.) Brush the first layer with butter, starting from the edges and working toward the center. Repeat with 2 other layers.

Sprinkle nuts over the layer. Repeat with 3 pieces of phyllo/butter, then more nuts until the pan is about 3/4 full. Pour additional butter over the top. With a sharp knife, cut the baklava into a diamond pattern (see box). Bake at 350 degrees (uncovered) for about 45 minutes. The top should be golden brown.

While the baklava is baking, make a sauce by boiling together water, sugar, and cinnamon, stirring constantly. Simmer for 10 minutes then discard the cinnamon. Mix in honey. Pour evenly over hot baklava.