Back with a baklava vengeance...

Whew!  This week has been a whirlwind!  It's so nice having the week off work and I've found plenty of stuff to keep me busy.  I had some time to myself after the dentist early Tuesday morning (look Ma, no cavities!) so I took advantage of being alone and finished my Christmas shopping.  The mall and the roads were surprisingly not crowded.  Since I had all my gifts, I decided to wrap them.  Now all I have is baking left.  Wednesday was a crazy day of baking.  The first thing I made was baklava.  I used to make it every Christmas then stopped for some reason so I'm back with a baklava vengeance.  Baklava isn't hard, it's just time consuming.  They take 50 minutes to bake and almost that amount of time to put it together.  But the end result is worth the effort.


The assembly


1 (17 1/4 oz) package frozen phyllo pastry, thawed
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup ground walnuts
1/3 cup ground almonds
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Syrup (recipe follows)


Cut phyllo to fit 13 x 9  pan.  Cover with a damp towel.  Lightly butter bottom of pan.  Layer 10 sheets of phyllo, brushing each sheet with melted butter.  Set aside.

Combine walnuts, almonds, sugar and spices, mixing well.  Sprinkle one-third nut mixture over phyllo in pan, drizzle with a little melted butter.  Top nut mixture with 11 sheets of phyllo, brushing each sheet with butter, repeat twice with remaining nut mixture, phyllo and butter, ending with buttered phyllo.  Cut into diamond shapes.  Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.  Cool thoroughly.  Drizzle warm syrup over pastries.  Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.

Layers complete

Cut into diamond shapes

Syrup:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 1/2 tablespoons honey.

Combine sugar, water and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil.  reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 7 minutes.  Stir in honey.

Out of the oven and ready for syrup

 Payden and Logan, 2 of the neighborhood kids, came down on Wednesday too so to keep them busy, I made dough for cut out cookies and let them have at it.  5 kids, icing and sprinkles...imagine my kitchen afterwards!  I am a master of the cookie cutout.  When Izzy was in kindergarten, her teacher asked me to make cookies one time...and she never stopped.  She'd provide me with the cut out and I'd make the cookies.  I have over 100 cookie cutters, if you even need something, just ask me, I've probably have it.  I make a butter cookie cutout as opposed to a sugar cookie.  Here's my recipe:

1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups flour

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla.  Add flour, mix well, Cover and chill about 1 hour.  Divide dough in half, flatten between 2 pieces of waxed paper to 1/4 inch thickness.  Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet, bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes.  Cool on wire racks

Since I hadn't done enough, I decided to make a new coffee cake too.  I didn't have the hazelnuts or raisins called for so I improvised with walnuts and craisins!  I gave them out as gifts; I just hope they're good because I never made them before...but at least they look impressive.  The recipe made 4 coffee cakes so I took one up to Father at church, gave one to our neighbor and drove one out to Kevin and Kim.  What a pretty drive to their house out in the country with the snow on the ground.  Davis's...if you're reading this, you would have gotten a coffee cake but it has nuts!  I think everything I made this Christmas had nuts...sorry!

To give me a break from baking, I waited until dusk, put on my running shoes and some night gear and headed out for a run around the neighborhood to get in some exercise and look at all the Christmas lights.  It was just what the doctor ordered!

Today I made some easy stuff, pretzels with chocolate and M&M's...salty/sweet...mmmmm.  Me and the kids just got back from dinner with Jay and I'm making my Christmas coffee cake as I type this.  I'm not one to brag but this coffee cake is the best ever!  I got the recipe from someone I used to work with and if it isn't on the Christmas and Easter table, I get in trouble.  I just can't share it here, you have to ask me for it!  Or I'll make you one if you're lucky!

All I have left to do is clean the house and box up my goodies.  Now I'm going to watch a movie with the kids.  Merry Christmas to all!