Baklava

Baklava is really good. really good. It is a Turkish dessert but is also very popular in Greece and along the Mediterranean. I mean its just an amazing concept, isn't it? Layers of buttery flaky dough sprinkled with nuts and cinnamon all covered up in a an amazing sticky honey sauce. A wonderful invention. So I thought it would be a great second recipe, and since I've never made pastry before, a great challenge.
The recipe I found I thought would be pretty reliable since it was from a blog written by a Greek woman, and traditional recipes written by experienced matriarchs are always the best, right? Philo dough was the most important ingredient the recipe said, this is what gives baklava the flaky layered texture, something like a croissant, only completely different. Between the layers of philo dough there is a mixture of nuts, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla that is sort of like the 'meat' of the pastry. This assemblage goes into the oven for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Poured over the top once it comes out is a boiled mixture of honey, sugar, vanilla, and water that is the delectable take-me-home-to-die part of baklava. I went to H-E-B and bought a package of frozen philo dough, sugar, butter, and the nuts, the rest of the ingredients we fortunately had in the common room or the kitchen already.

Done

I put the dough and nut layers together like the recipe said, alternating with painted layers of melted butter. Then I sliced the surface diagonally into diamond shapes and put it into to oven. While waiting, I boiled the water and sugar then let it simmer with the honey in it; this was the part I was sure I would mess up since it seemed there were so many things that could go wrong with melting sugar. Sugar just doesn't seem like its supposed to melt. Thankfully Gabby and Kali were there to keep me sane and stir it when I forgot. The insane part of this recipe was that when the baklava came out of the oven and once the honey mixture had been poured over the top, the author of the recipe was asking me to wait 8 hours for the honey to soak in. A ridiculous request, but we made it. I think maybe I put in too many nuts that maybe weren't chopped small enough, but other than that I am glad to be able to say that Ive made baklava, and even happier that it went so well with coffee the next morning.