Abusing my Dental Plan

Baklava

In the midst of a daydream from my dreary workload I began to wonder what were my favorite desserts.  Interestingly, a trip to Las Vegas made me realize what those desserts were.  My choice had come down to three.  All three: Sans Rival, Baklava and Tres Leches, were served to me in Las Vegas.  Today, I present to you my number two.  Why my number two instead of one?  Well, I've been craving this thing for quite a while and the place where I used to go to get my fix, it swam away from a Mermaid as the Tavern brewed it's beer.  Residents of Guam, I know you know what I'm talking about.  It turns out, I can get my number 1 and number 3 on the island.  Because Guam is full of Filipinos, Sans Rival is rather a common dessert.  For Tres Leches, Carmen's Cha Cha Cha - Mexican Restaurant happily serves me that cake.

So as for Baklava, well here's some history from my vantage point.  It was served to me in a Greek restaurant.  Which one, I don't remember.  Vegas can be full of haze.  So, in a simple way I figured it was a Greek dessert.  However, one day I was watching the movie Munich and Efraim was walking with Avner, characters who were played by Geoffrey Rush and Eric Bana.  While stating protocol Efraim offers Avner some Baklava.  As Avner politely refused, Efraim mentions how Avner should be careful about sweets, for he is no longer on his employment dental plan.  The setting was in Israel.  I learned that Baklava was also a middle eastern dessert.  This extremely sweet thing plays off like a kind of strudel.  The phyllo dough gives off a nice delicate flakiness.  With sugar and honey doused onto it, a slice of this is best consumed with unsweetened tea.

If you get the phyllo dough that I had purchased, the recipe is attached to it.  What is not shown however are chopped walnuts.  (Stupid me, how could I have forgotten!)  The walnuts had a nice soft crunch.  The oven is preheated at 350 degrees.  While that was heating, each sheet of phyllo dough was laid one by one on a 9x13 baking pan.  In between each layer is a light amount of basted melted butter.  In a separate bowl I separate a pound of chopped walnuts and sprinkled a teaspoon or two of cinnamon.  After laying the 8th sheet of phyllo dough, I sprinkled the chopped walnut mixture.  I repeated the phyllo dough laying process until the sheets were done.  Before going into the oven, I sliced the loaf into triangles.  In the oven it went at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.  While that was baking I took a saucepan and boiled a cup of water, a cup of sugar, a half cup of honey and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Some recipes call for lemon juice instead of vanilla extract.  As all of that exotic-ness went to a boil, I lowered the temperature to a simmer for 20 minutes.  When the baking was done I poured the syrup mixture onto the loaf while it cooled.  *sniff* *sniff* the sweetness simply permeates. The syrup sizzles as it's being poured.  Cooled, the Baklava was soon to enter my mouth.  Oh the sugar, the honey- it was so sinful.  Cavities were soon to ensue.  But, it didn't matter.  Unlike Avner, I was still under my employment dental plan.

For recipes, Google-ing it helps but AllRecipies.com has everything you need for easy reference.  Enjoy!