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.
I was super excited to read about this month's challenge. Granted, it wasn't much of challenge, as the recipe called for Rodgers' phyllo dough which I've made before (mmm, strudel!), and then turning it into baklava, which I make a few times a year, but it was fun nonetheless. Husband is a bit of a baklava snob... I mean, purist ;), so I didn't dare use the recipe the host provided. First, it includes honey which is yes, traditional, but husband vehemently dislikes. Second, it called for half the butter my recipe uses, so I was worried it might turn out a bit dry. Third, I didn't have all the nuts the recipe called for. Forth, I usually get not-quite-favorable critiques for steering away from my family recipe :P.
Just like last time the dough was a charm to work with. It stretched beautifully, and I found it easier to roll into 16 smaller sheets for the baklava than in one humongous sheet for the strudel for the May 2009 challenge.
The dough:
Sheets all rolled out. Unlike many of the other DBs I didn't have issues with them sticking to each other... but then again, the San Francisco Bay Area is not famous for humidity, so maybe that helped.
Ready to go into the oven. I tucked the edges in rather than cutting them out for a more rustic look. (Ahem, not out of laziness or anything :):
And just out:
Freshly covered with syrup:
An inside view:
My only worry was whether the syrup from my recipe would soak into the home-made dough as well as it does into store-bought (it didn't!) but other than that minor glitch, the baklava turned out perfect. Weeell, near perfect. Husband's comment was "I like it, but I prefer it with phyllo dough." Bzuh? I guess he means store-bought :D
