Middle Eastern: Baklava 31 by Recipe Cottage

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	Baklava 31

		Baklava 1-pound package frozen filo dough, 20 sheets, 14x22 inches; thawed five hours 1 lb roasted, unsalted walnuts, coarsely chopped or ground. 2/3 cup sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/3 tsp ground cloves Since the chopped walnuts I buy are pretty big pieces, I stick the walnuts in a blender and chop them up--leaving some big pieces around, but mostly chopped pretty fine. I have to put them in the blender in 1/4 lb batches to get them to chop right at all. Then I hand mix the nuts and all the other ingredients in a bowl. Syrup 1 cup honey (orange blossom honey is recommended) 3/4 cup water 1/4 cup sugar 2 Tbsp lemon juice 2 small pieces of lemon peel 1 inch piece of cinnamon stick. Combine all of the above in a saucepan, and let simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool. Discard peels and cinnamon stick. Assembly 1 lb filo dough 3/4 lb butter Nut Filling (above) Syrup (above) Melt the butter. Unwrap the filo dough--fold it in half, like the pages of a book (the Fillo brand comes like this already). Turn down one "page" of filo dough onto the cookie sheet and brush it with butter (careful, the pages are delicate stuff; if they tear a little, it'll still be fine, really). Keep the rest of the pages covered with wax paper (comes in the package), plastic wrap, or a dry kitchen towel while you butter the turned down page. Continue turning down pages and buttering them until 1/3 have been used (13 pages or so for the 20-sheet filo dough; since it's folded, you really have 40 pages). Once you have 1/3 buttered, cover the top of the buttered pages with half of the nut filling. Then turn down and butter another 1/3 of the pages. Once that second 1/3 is buttered, put the rest of the nut filling on top of them. Continue turning over pages and buttering them until they're all turned over, buttered, and lying on top of the stack. With a sharp knife, score the pastry into diamonds, squares, and rectangles. I find having two people butter the baklava makes things go a lot faster (it can easily take a couple of hours by yourself). Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until puffed, crisp, and deep golden-brown. Remove from oven and immediately pour cooled syrup over the baklava (this is why you need a solid raised edge on your cookie sheet). You're supposed to let it stand four hours, but nobody does this. When cool, cut through to the bottom layer on those scored cuts.