Baklava

Baklava is a sweet pastry made with filo pastry layered with crushed nuts and dates soaked in sugar-honey syrup.

Ingredients:

1. Filo pastry sheets - 35 sheets in pan shape
2. Butter, melted and cooled - 2 cups
3. Crushed or chopped almonds - 2 cups
4. Dates, chopped - 1/2 cup

Syrup

1. Sugar-1/2 cup
2. Honey - 1/4 cup
3. Water -1/3 cup
4. Lemon peel, shredded - 1/2 lemon

Method:

1. Heat all the ingredients for syrup in a bowl, stirring in between to melt sugar
2. Once the syrup starts to boil, stop stirring and let it boil for 4-5 minutes and keep it in room temperature to cool
3. Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius 
4. Butter a baking pan
5. Cut 35 sheets of filo pastry dough to the pan shape
6. Place a filo sheet in the buttered pan
7. Brush the filo sheet with butter and place  next sheet on top
8. Repeat the procedure till 10 sheets are placed on top of each other with butter brushed in between each sheet
9. Brush butter on the 10th sheet and layer with 1/2 cup of almonds
10. Again place 5 sheets of filo with butter brushed between each filo sheet
11. Layer 1/2 cup of crushed almonds again
12. Repeat the same 2 more times with 5 sheets of filo again and almonds
13. Top with 10 sheets of filo with butter brushed between each filo sheet
14. Finally brush butter in the top layer and bake for 1 hr
15. Raise the temperature from 160 to 220 and bake for 15 more minutes or till the top is golden brown
16. Take out from the oven and pour cool syrup on the hot baklava. You should be able to hear the sizzling sound. 
17. Keep the baklava open to cool in the room temperature
18. Let the baklava stand for a few hours undisturbed so the syrup penetrates well. 
19. Garnish with chopped pistachios.