Baklava

Baklava
one box phyllo (filo) pastry, thawed and at room temperature (keep well wrapped and cover any pastry with a damp tea towel when not in use. It dried out and becomes brittle and impossible to work with immediately)
dried fruit and nut filling (recipe will follow tomorrow)
Sweet citrus spice syrup (recipe will follow the next day)
olive oil

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Line a cookie sheet or baking tray with parchment paper.
Prepare sweet citrus spice syrup, then set aside to cool and thicken.
Prepare dried fruit and nut filling.
Lay one sheet of pastry on a clean, flat work surface. Gently brush all over with olive oil. Repeat with nine more sheets of pastry. Spread top sheet gently and evenly with the filling, you may not use quite all of it. Place another sheet of pastry on top and brush with olive oil and repeat with nine more sheets of pastry.
Gently roll the entire mass up tightly from a long end, jelly-roll or cinnamon roll style. Brush top with a little additional oil. Gently use a sharp knife to slice into sixteen equal pieces, trim off the ends where there is not much filling and discard. Gently place the pastries filling side up on prepared baking tray (they can be close together). Bake for about 20 minutes until crisp and golden.
Remove from oven and brush tops and sides with the syrup, let stand for a few minutes, then turn pastries over and brush again. Let cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I have been wanting to make baklava for quite some time now, as I have never even tried it before but it looks so good! I decided to go for it during our middle eastern buffets and was certainly glad I did. I put my own spin on it, as most fillings only have nuts and no dried fruit, and I added extra flavor to my syrup. The big change though, was the way I formed my baklava. Normally the pastry is either divided into squares and individually rolled or formed, or it is baked in a rectangular pan in one big mass, cut before baking, and served as squares. However, the phyllo pastry I had taken out to thaw for myself was used by someone else, and was left uncovered and dried out. This made it impossible to scrounge up hardly any full sheets, so I could not form the baklava in the traditional way. I used any almost full sheets for the bottom few layers, then crumbled the pieces over top of this and drizzled them with oil as best I could, then rolled it up like a cinnamon roll. Thankfully, it worked, and I like this look of baklava even better than the traditional!

The lessons here are to be very careful with phyllo pastry - keep it wrapped and covered at all times, otherwise it dries out and will not be flexible at all; it will break and not bend. If however it is too late, this method will work for dry phyllo pastry, so don't throw it all out yet. Whether your pastry is moist or dried, this recipe is tasty!