Clarified butter in Balkava?

[cape chef]

momoreg, Thanks for the recipe. Try marking the baklava with your knife before baking instead of cutting it. If you weight it down with something that is a little smaller then your pan you will not steam it you will actually push out the steam. I have a number of different size cuts of wood that I wrap with foil and place on top of anything from a Terrine to baklava with some weight on it.maybe you should add some whole butter to your filling, cream it with the nuts and sugar. That might help with the moisture.Either way, I'm sure your Baklava is tasty
cc

[m brown]

When I have made Baklava, for every four buttered sheets, dust with the filling. four sheets, dust, four sheets, dust until you are done. bake, cut, syrup while hot.
syrup
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup honey
rose water or orange blossom
pinch o' salt

I am getting hungry!

[momoreg]

Wow what a wealth of ideas to try!

Good point, capechef, I guess it wouldn't steam with a smaller weight than pan. I have never tried making it without pre-cutting it. Have you done it that way? And it doesn't crumble when you try cutting the baked product?

Mbrown, I will try that method, dusting periodically, rather than a single layer of filling. Seems like that might help it adhere better. I shall keep you posted, when and if I ever have time to make baklava again!

Many thanks to you both.

This baklava discussion got me curious as to how baklava is made in various countries where it is traditional and I decided to check some of my regional cookbooks and see what they had to say about the method. Needless to say, they do not agree, but none of them mentions weighing down after baking. Here is what I came up with after a quick look:

Balkan cookbook: filling between every two layers, cut before baking, cold syrup over hot baklava, kept overnight.

Greek cookbook: filling between every two or three layers (but at least four phyllo layers on top, pre-cut, warm syrup over hot baklava. (Two other Greek cookbooks have the same method but here, hot syrup is poured over a cooled baklava. One book says to let the baklava cool, the others are silent on this.)

Cretan cookbook: filling between every two layers, four phyllo layers on top, only the top layers cut, hot syrup poured over hot baklava.

Turkish cookbook: One layer of filling (one third of the phyllo sheets underneath it, two thirds on top), pressed down with the hands to compress, pre-cut, cooled syrup over hot baklava. Let stand several hours.

Middle Eastern cookbook: One layer of filling in the middle, pre-cut, cold syrup poured over hot baklava. Let cool to room temperature.

Persian cookbook: Two layers of nut filling (different fillings), pricked but not pre-cut, cut after baking, hot syrup over hot baklava, let cool completely.

Algerian cookbook (uses a slightly different dough): One layer of filling in the middle, pre-cut, hot syrup over hot baklava, let cool completely.

[shroomgirl]

Sounds alittle redundant now, I do 4 layers and do a mixed nut (almond, pecan, walnut choose 2) sugar cinnamon and orange zest as the filling and don't have the separation problem. I also throw an orange peel and lemon peel in the syrup.
Baklava fingers....rolled cookies are fun too

[Live_to_cook]

Does anyone stud their baklava pieces with cloves? Don't know where it came from but with the orange water it certainly transports you to Middle East bazaar instantly... warm, intoxicating fragrance.

[mudbug]

I've infused my syrup with cloves but never studded them.

Here's some questions for everyone...

Have you incorporated orange blossom water and/or rose water into your baklava?

Do you find that people not native from the middle east like or dislike this addition?

Orange flower water yes, rose water no, but I´ve used it in other phyllo pastries. The orange flower water was much better liked than the rose water, I´ll have to say.

Besides these, the most common flavorings used in the baklava recipes in my cookbooks are lemon and cinnamon; the Afghan one (which I forgot to mention in the earlier post - that one has three layers of filling and hot syrup is poured over hot pastry) is flavored with cardamom and saffron, which is quite fitting for that region.

[Live_to_cook]

Cardamom, yum.

Orange blossom water is always welcome. Rose water has been rejected in my house as tasting nastily like perfume (as in the Greek sweet called "loukoumi" (spelling?) or "Greek delight").

[momoreg]

A follow-up:

I made 2 types of baklava yesterday...One with the filling sandwiched thick between two flaky layers, and one the way mbrown described, with a sprinkle of nuts every 4th sheet. I did not have any separation with the first, because this time I added melted butter to the pistachio/sugar mixture. That helped immensely.

The other one turned out well, but not quite as solid as I was hoping for. It was flaky, crunchy, and delicious, but some of the tops fell off. I think I should have added more syrup, but I didn't want to water-log it. Anyway, mbrown and everybody else, thanks for your advice. It is much appreciated.

[pc0158]

Not sure if this will help with the separation problem, but one tip I ran across is: lay down the last sheet of phyllo on top of a buttered sheet, but don't butter it; instead, give it a light spritz of water. Add nuts. Spritz the nuts with water. Lay down another phyllo sheet, butter, phyllo, butter, phyllo, etc.

The idea is that the nuts are encased in a pocket of phyllo whose inside is unbuttered, but faintly damp. This is supposed to help the sheets adhere to the nuts a bit. As such, it also keeps the upper sheet from slipping around on the nut mixture while you try to butter it.

Also recommended: spritz the very top sheet just before putting in the oven, which will keep the trimmed edges from curling.

Maybe.

Cutting down the thickness of the nut layer may also help. It doesn't stick to itself well. Maybe cut it in half and use fewer layers of dough in between.

[Domy]

Maybe for once I can be of some help to you all in my native US of A!!! .. here is the recipe straight from crete, greece...
1/2cup chppd walnuts or almonds
4 tbsp breadcrumbs
4 tbsp sugar
1 tspn cinnamn
1 cup butter
10oz phyllo

for the syrup
1 generous cup sugar
7tbsp honey
2 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
juice of 1 lemon

mix the walnuts or almonds with the breadcrumbs, sugar and cinnamon.Melt the butter. Preheat the oven to 350.
Grease a shallow baking pan large enought to accomodate the sheets of pastry.Brush the pastry sheets with butter and place the first 2 into the baking pan.Cover the upper layer with nut filling.Lay another buttered sheet on top and cover with filling. Repeat until you have completed 8 layers. Once you have added the 9th layer, cut off any excess patry from around the edges. Place one final buttered layer on top and cut a diamond shaped pattern into it. Sprinkle with water and bake in the center of a preheated oven for 30-40 min until golden brown.
To make syrup: boil sugar in 6 cups of water for 5 min. Add honey, cloves, cinnamon and cont to simmer. Remove cloves and cinnamon and stir in lemon juice. Bring syrup to a boil then leave to cool.Remove baklava from oven and pour syrup over it . For this stage either the pastry should have cooled and the syrup be warm, or else the pastry should be warm and the syrup cool sot the baklavas do not become soft!!!! cut into diamond shapes and serve.
Let me know what you think.

[firiki03]

Domy, your recipe sounds great! When I make Baklavas, I use 1 kg (2.2lb) of phyllo sheets which in my opinion is the standard height for this traditional dessert. I prefer to use walnuts instead of almonds as I feel they give a better taste. A word of caution to all those who want to try this sweet tasting dessert. Make sure that Baklavas are well baked before pouring in the syrup, otherwise you will end up with a soggy dough!!

[lemonaki]

I've had the separation - may be when I had too thick a layer of nuts at the top layer. Anchoring it with cloves helps.

[foodpump]

I learned to make Baklava in a Greek restaurant where it was always studded with cloves.

Baklava is a dish common to about 12 different countries (probably more...), with each country calling this dish their own and any other variations than theirs "not original".... So it's best not to state that you've made an "original" bakalava....

Generally, what I have found is that the Greeks prefer to use walnuts, or a blend of walnuts and almonds, and stud with cloves, and the farther east you go, Iran and Iraq, use pistachios and start to use the rose and orange flower water.