Monday, June 27, 2011

Daring Bakers - From Phyllo to Baklava


Baklava is one of those Greek sweets that, when you are in the mood for sticky sweetness, is very moorish, but which can be overwhelming at other times.  I have never made my own baklava - until now.

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

Truly, I made my own phyllo for this challenge:


Until I started blogging, I thought that phyllo only came in boxes in the freezer section of the supermarket; then my friend Ivy made her own, and I realised it could be done.  However, it seemed pretty daunting, and I had never made phyllo until this challenge.

Here are the phyllo sheets after rolling:




Unfortunately, I did not get near enough sheets out of the recipe to make the number of layers required, so I winged it with fewer layers.  The phyllo unfortunately stuck together a little, so I had a hard time creating layers in the pan.  

Perhaps my lack of layers also led to my next problem - I had way too much syrup to be absorbed by the pastry and nuts, so my baklava tended to create a sticky pool of syrup and nuts when cut:


Ah well, it still tasted good.  If you love baklava, visit The Daring Bakers website to see a slideshow of lots and lots of baklava to make your mouth water.  Thanks to our host Erica for introducing me to the art of making phyllo.

17 comments:

Kayte said...

Looks great to me! Even more so because you made the dough!!! OMW...wow. Phyllo and I have a love hate relationship...love to eat it, hate messing with it. I need to devote a weekend to phyllo recipes and conquer the fear. Wow this looks great.

Johanna GGG said...

making your own filo seems far more daring than even baklava - though that is daring too partly because I saw how some of the sydney rd shops make it on a tour and the amount of butter and sugar were truly frightening

Anonymous said...

I am extremely impressed! Your baklava looks very delicious.

Jane said...

A very impressive effort! I think the dough gets in the way of the delicious filling anyway. I'd definitely have some!

Anonymous said...

I too didn't know you could make your own phyllo...the things you learn when you're a blogger! and the things you'd do when you're a daring baker!
You should be proud of yourself for taking on this challenge :)
just tell anyone you made your own phyllo and watch their reaction

Finla said...

Yours look so so good, i gave it a miss this time.

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

I can't look! I love baklava way too much and I know I'll be craving it! :P

The Blonde Duck said...

There is no way I could make that.

PrerrnaMirchi said...

Hi, thnx for the kind words on my blog. I had a crazy time working with the phyllo dough but I'm glad it worked out in the end. Think I'll double the recipe next time as I did not have as many sheets as I wanted for my baklava. Love your blog; there are quite a few recipes I'd like to experiment with :)

Lauren Hairston said...

I do love baklava, but I might just stick to getting it from the Middle Eastern restaurant that's just a few blocks from our house! Yours looks delicious, though.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Even after reading a lot of food blogs, I have never thought about making phyllo. Impressive!

Amanda said...

Wow, I'm seriously impressed. You really take these challenges seriously, don't you. It would never, ever occur to me to try to make my own Phyllo, so well done you!
And while your baclava might not have turned out quite as perfectly as you might have wished, it looks nutty and gooey and just right to me.

shaz said...

Ha ha, we have the same "hand holding pastry" shot! I made my baklava in a smaller pan because I found that I had very few pastry sheets too. Great job on the challenge and your phyllo sheets are so super thin.

shelley c. said...

I had to piece together some layers, too - I used the edges from the pieces I cut to size to make extra layers. Your baklava turned out awesome! Really great job.

chef_d said...

Wow your phyllo sheets look perfect! And I just love that picture with the syrup pooling around, delicious!

anunturi gratuite said...

Oh my God how good it looks and i`m sure it is delicious. Not a very easy recipe but i will try it. Thanks a lot for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Your baklava looks perfect to me! I love mine with extra syrup, so I would take a slice of yours anyway!
Great job!!