Baklava, baklove

Baklava is not the easiest or cheapest dessert to make. Especially if you shell out $12 for shelled pistachios (ha, see what I did there) and some more $$ for ground cardamom. I avoided the latter expense by buying only 2 tbs from the bulk section of Whole Foods, and later learned I could have avoided the former by using another kind of nut (or getting them from Trader Joe's)... not all baklava recipes use pistachios!

BUT, after all that, we came out with lovely baklava that tasted pretty much perfect (after cutting off burned edges... yeah, that nice golden color is not intentional)

Flaky, nutty, spicy, sweet...

I used this recipe from The Kind Life, which I probably wouldn't follow if I made it again without changing a lot of things. First of all, the orange flavor was a little too strong, and I added cardamom because I think it kind of makes baklava what it is. I might mix walnuts with pistachios, use more nuts and less syrup, and bake for less time (it burned on the edges, as I mentioned, and was excessively flaky on the top as a result.) I used only about 1.5 cups of margarine, too, when brushing between layers. The instructions for layering were good, I would say. We used Athens brand phyllo dough, and it fit nearly perfectly into the pan. The recipe also doesn't say how long to cool it, but we put it in the fridge for a few hours and it was fine.

The good news is, for one, it tastes really good, and for another, since this was our first time making baklava, I feel like I have a good foundation to make this again with my own adjustments. So, maybe I'll come up with some awesome recipe on my own the next time I'm feeling adventurous and craving the distinct flavors of baklava.

Layering the pistachios and syrup

After baking and syrup-ing... you can totally see the burned sides here!

So, while I recommend using another recipe and maybe adding cardamom, I totally think everyone should make this whenever they have time. It's also kind of fun to lay out phyllo dough sheets and brush them with margarine... or maybe that's just me? It feels kind of like making art, which I guess it is, in a way.