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.