Baklava

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The recipe worked like a charm save for the syrup which was more like candy than syrup.

The first time I work a recipe, I follow it to the letter, which I did. Everything worked fine (the Philo did dry out being at altitude in CO and I ran out of clarified butter, but these are trivial problems save that the syrup was at the hard candy stage (based on outcome after 10 minutes of boiling. I did a little research here and elsewhere and found a recipe that calls for bringing the liquid (2 parts sugar to 1 part wate to a boil then reducing the heat and simmering tor 2-3 minutes. Not sure how AB got this to work by boiling it for 10 minutes.

We are going to try this again because the flavor was great for what we could eat, but, we will modify the syrup recipe to make syrup, rather than hard setting candy.

Oh, for the record, it will be a 5 star recipe when the syrup instructions are corrected.

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made something so amazing and delicious, super easy and ... still amazing and delicious! you are my hero. i love it! congratulation on the 10th anniversary. wouldn't be the same without you

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I didn't waste time after viewing Good Eats...Alton Brown create Bakalava...
I was a baker for many years 1977-1986 but, we never made this pastry
in our bakery. I was always a fan and knew it was not difficult to make.

So, I been out of the bakery industry for a long time but still LOVE to bake!!

Alton is such a awesome communicator and his ability to captivate me while
he is describing a receipe is hypnotic!
I never channel surf while watching "Good Eats"!!
I am not a nerd but love his scientific method... which is very crucial to many
baking procedures...

This was a very good treat!!

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I am pretty much a novice, and before I invest time and money in trying something a little different, I thought I would check and see if different nuts would work. I love macadamia and hazelnuts, and thought they might be good combined either with the almonds or pistachios. I am not sure if their oil content or consistency would work the same as the combo of pistachios/walnuts/pistachios that Allton uses.

Does anyone have any idea if this would work? Someone also said they used vanilla extract instead of the rose water, and this sounds delicious to me, too. I hope some fabulous Foodies can help me out here. If it weren't for Alton Brown's wonderful show, I wouldn't even consider making Baklava, but he makes it seem fun and easy! Bravo, Mr. brown!!!!

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This was so good! It does require a little more time and patience (and money than other desserts, so be prepared. I recommend watching Alton before making it especially if you don't bake/cook a lot. Definitely worth it though. Plus you have the whole dish to eat instead of a few bakery squares! Made my own rose water and it worked well. Follow the directions when working with the phyllo dough so it doesn't dry out and be mindful of the heat and humidity in the kitchen- it will help. If you want a show stopper make this for your family and friends- they will be amazed by the taste and that you made it!

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I prepared for making this for weeks... bought spray bottles, whole nutmeg (which has totally paid off in everything, for the record, found rose water, etc. Was it worth it? Mmmmmm. I'd say so.

I used perhaps 18-19 allspice berries, and my cinnamon stick looked much larger than the one Alton used in the show (it was 5 inches, and indeed true cinnamon, but it appeared about twice as thick as Alton's--as such, mine came out a little spicier than I would have liked... but only at first. A day and a half later, it was perrrrfect. YUM! I also baked it for nearly half the time, because it looked quite brown on top, and I was afraid the phyllo would burn--and it was still fantastic. Better out too early than too late. :

It was much easier than I thought--my phyllo was hard to work with, but it didn't really matter in the end how pretty it was during the process. I'm going to pack some up and send it to family and friends. Bottom line--such a treat, and I'd definitely do it again!

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So easy and so tasty. I had to fight my family from taking too much home. I couldn't find rose water so I used water with a bit of vanilla extract in it. Rose water would have been yummy but the vanilla did the job.

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I made a few changes to the recipe (I didn't have walnut or rose water, so just used extra pistachios and almonds/ plain water The phyllo dough was easy to work with, I thought, even though it was my first time (I put my pastry board in the freezer and took it out right before opening the phyllo (I thawed it at room temp for about 2 hours. However, I just got to the syrup stage, and as an earlier reviewer commented, I wish the temperature for the syrup mixture were included. I only cooked mine for six minutes, yet, it had reached "hard ball" stage. Now I'm not sure that it is going to soak in properly. Boo. Other than that, I thought this recipe was well written, and was the only one for baklava I found that didn't totally overwhelm me.

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I always avoided making baklava because it's generally way too sweet and you always hear about how hard it is to make because of the phyllo.

This recipe (and watching Alton on the show proves that it's not too difficult working with phyllo. You do need a bit of patience and no interruptions but otherwise the recipe is easy. Although Alton doesn?t recommend it I did have a damp towel on hand but found I didn?t need it.

The orange blossom honey is the reason why this recipe is sweet but no as sickly so as others. I?ve read that Greeks generally use thyme honey which is even less sweet so if I can ever find that I?ll make this again with it. My mother kept telling me this was going to come out way too sweet but even she was surprised and loved this recipe.

The only changes I would/did make are the following:
1 Next time I will cut the baklava all the way through before baking. My mother told me to do this as she?s made baklava before with different recipes but I generally follow recipes almost exactly the first time I make them. I found the top layers cracked way too much upon cutting half way through baking.
2 I added two teaspoons or cardamom to the syrup before cooking and two tablespoons of rosewater after it came off the heat.
3 For the rosewater mix I used two tablespoons of rosewater and two tablespoon of water in a small sprayer bottle. There was still some left though I sprayed thoroughly each time.

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Alton. I love you for this one.

Happy Deliciousness in my mouth.