Christmas Cookie Week Day 5 - Baklava

When I first moved to Arizona, my first Christmas here was, of course, a whole new experience.  I spent time with my grandparents, on my dad's side, and learned of a new holiday treat, Baklava (recipe courtesy of PioneerWoman!)

Now it was much too sweet for my pathetic tastes, but I remember my grandmother would light up when she ate those things.  She sure did have a sweet tooth for those! Now, had I realized I could make this treat, I probably would have made her batches upon batches of this.  Which would have lead to me becoming the baklava queen of our generation, but I doubt my parents would've let a little ol' second grader do cooking things. Don't blame them. I'm beyond clumsy. 

But anyways, enjoy and share this wonderful holiday treat!

How happy everything looks.

 So start by chopping some pecans... which I decided to cut up by hand. I need to add as much love to this as possible. Why? Because like I stated in another post I tend to freak out when I cook solo. So, all these pecans were cut by hand.

 Pikachu approves. 

 Melt some butter. A lot of it. 

 Then butter the pan up... see the melted butter? I love it. It calls my name.

Fillo Dough! This stuff nearly gave me a heart attack because it's so ridiculously thin. I'm sure if you look at it wrong it will split in two. Seriously. 

 Layer a bunch of sheets with butter...

 BE CAREFUL!

 Towards the center add some pecans... then repeat until you run out of pecans.

 The one sheet above the pecans... I was afraid if I used flash it would ruin the dough. Don't judge me.
Next finish with a couple more sheets, and cut up into baklava pieces. Next, place it in the oven. No picture thanks to my carelessness... I'm sorry.

 While that's cooking get the syrup mixed up, more butter, honey, 

 sugar,

 and vanilla.

 And stir.

Finally pull the baklava out and drizzle with the syrup. Not too shabby eh?


So close to Christmas now! Have you checked out Second Friday? Please do. You'll laugh away the pounds that all these cookies are giving you. I promise.