Daring Kitchen challenge June 2011: Baklava

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.

 This challenge was indeed a challenge for me.  It was very labor intensive, it took me about 3 hours to roll out all of my phyllo dough and by the end I wasn't doing that very well either.  I wont go through the step by step of rolling out phyllo dough just because I didn't really get the hang of it.  This video here shows how to roll out phyllo dough, mind you, this lady makes it look easy!  There are a couple of things I learned along the way, but the number one is....I will probably always buy pre made phyllo dough.  Yes, I said it, I usually am totally for making everything from scratch but unless you have a whole day to dedicate to making this desert then I suggest you buy the frozen dough.  You can see that I started to get tired rolling the dough because the layers are a bit thicker on top where as on the bottom they were paper thin.  Yes it still all tasted very good, but they were not as pretty as I had envisioned them.  For the dough recipe comes from 'Kafeehause' by Rick Rodgers, and the Baklava recipe is from Alton Brown with a couple of variations changed by me.

Phyllo dough-I doubled this recipe
1 1/3 cups unbleached all purpose (plain) flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon  water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar,

For the Baklava-
Filling:
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp allspice
8 ounces hazelnuts
8 ounces pistachios
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
8 ounces unsalted butter
2 tsp rose water
Syrup:
1 1/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cup water
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
orange peel

To make the phyllo dough mix all of the dry ingredients with a paddle mixer, combine water, vinegar, and oil.  Add a bit more water until the dough comes together.  Change to a hook mixer and mix for ten minutes, then hand knead for another two.

Cover in vegetable oil and allow to rest for 2 hours in a covered bowl.

Roll out the dough in multiple sheets, check the video I posted above for a reference.  I rolled out all of my dough first and then I started to assemble my baklava...this I feel was a mistake.  As I layered the dough it wasn't really sticking together so I though I was fine but after I cut all of it to fit my pan I had an extremely hard time separating them.  I suggest rolling out your dough and assemble the baklava at the same time so you don't run into this mistake and have to pry the paper thin sheets of dough off of each other.

For the filling, Grind up the hazelnuts and the pistachios.  I used an old coffee grinder, and it worked great!  Add the cinnamon and all spice.  Using a small spray bottle add 1/2 cup of water with 2 tsp of Frangelico.  Melt the butter and using a brush, brush your pan with some butter.  Lay down a sheet of phyllo dough and the cover this with butter.  Repeat about 9 more times, then top with 1/3 of the nut mixture and spritz thoroughly with the Frangelico water.  Top with 6 more sheets of phyllo and butter and the add another third of the nuts and spritz with Frangelico water.  Repeat another 6 sheets and then use the rest of the nuts and spritz with rose water.  Top with 8 sheets of phyllo and butter the generously brush the very top layer with a lot of butter.  I didn't take any pictures of this process because I was already frustrated with my phyllo sticking together and I didn't want to bother with the camera....

Place in a 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes.  Remove pan from oven and cut into triangles or squares.  During this 30 minutes I had time to cool off so I had the patience to create a little triangle design.  Place in the oven for another 30 minutes and then cool for about 2 hours.

During the last 30 minutes of cooling, make the syrup.  Add all of the ingredients into a large sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Boil for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and remove the cinnamon stick and orange peel.  When the baklava has cooled for two hours, re-cut the baklava and then slowly pour the syrup into the pan.  Allow the pan to sit and completely cool and then cover and sit for 8 hours or overnight before serving.

 

As you can see, the top layers are a bit thicker then the should be due to my frustration and my patience running out haha.  It still tasted very good though.

MIxed berry crumb cake

 

I couldn't find my camera while I was making this so the pictures were taken by my phone which isn't the best quality, so I apologize for the pictures.  I've been wanting to make up some sort of berry cake for a while and now that berries are about to be in season I couldn't wait.  In my garden I have four raspberry bushes and one black berry bush.  They haven't produced berries yet but when they do I will have a bunch so many berry recipes to follow after this one!  For this cake I bought the berries, but since they are in season the berries were inexpensive.  You can also use frozen berries which are cheaper but taste just as good as the store bought fresh ones, of course berries from your garden will always taste the best!

Streusel:

1 1/2 cup crushed Nilla wafers

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup chopped almonds

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cardamon

1/2 cup melted unsalted butter

Cake:

2 cups unbleached flour

1 cup sugar

2 1/3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temp)

2 eggs (room temp)

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk

Berries:

6 oz raspberries

6 oz black berries

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp sugar

Mix all of the streusel ingredients in a medium bowl.  First I mixed all of the ingredients together except for the melted butter.  Then I added the butter and mixed everything with a wooden spoon until the butter was evenly distributed.  For the cake there will be three layers of streusel.  Set the streusel aside and make the batter for the cake.  In a medium mixing bowl add the sugar and butter together, mix until creamy then add the vanilla, milk, and 2 eggs.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth.  For the berries place both in a small bowl with the sugar and lemon juice.  Gently toss until evenly coated, make sure you don't break the berries.

For the construction of the cake, spray a 9 inch spring for pan and press a 1/3 of the streusel evenly on the bottom.  

Pour half of the batter over the bottom layer and spread it so it is an even layer.  Add half of the berries, I placed them in one by one to make sure they were evenly distributed.  Gently press down on the berries so they are in the cake batter.  Sprinkle half of the remaining streusel evenly over the batter and then pour the rest of the batter into the pan.  Place the remaining berries into the second layer of batter and then sprinkle the rest of the streusel evenly over the top of your cake.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 60 minutes, test by poking the center with a toothpick.  Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing it.

Yummy moist berry cake tastes best with coffee or hot tea in the morning.  This is a tasty alternative to coffee cake.