Once you buy the Phyllo Dough in the Freezer Section of Your Supermarket, Making this Dessert is Easy - If a bit Time-Consuming.

As the perfect accompaniment to Turkish Coffee in the afternoon, or served at the end of the great Middle Eastern meal or on a Mezze Table, Paklava is only difficult to create is you have to make the phyllo dough yourself. (Read my blog on making your own).

Today, the frozen sheets are readily available in the freezer sections of most super markets. One hint: Keep the sheets covered with a damp towel to keep them moist when preparing this recipe - as they dry out quickly and become unusable if you don't.

While nut fillings are the most common way to fill the paklava. Here is a link to a sweetened cheese version.

Also check out recipes for more things to do with Phyllo Dough, like Spinach Pie or Paklava Cookies!

Ingredients:

• 10 large sheets of phyllo dough
• 1 pound chopped walnuts or pistachio nuts
• About ½ cup sugar
• About 1 Tablespoon each of Cinnamon and Allspice (to taste)
• 2 ½ pounds of unsalted butter, melted

Syrup:

• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 ½ cups of water
• Boil into a simple syrup and add a few drops of lemon juice

You will also need wax paper and a large, shallow baking pan (but not a sheet pan).

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of the baking pan.
3. Stack five sheets of dough on top of each other.
4. Lay the cut wax paper on top of them – in one corner – and cut the dough to measure. (Usually you can get four sections out of one stacked sheet dough pile).
5. Take one cut stack of five sheet doughs and lay them in the baking pan.
6. Brush the top liberally with melted butter.
7. Add the next stack and five cut sheets and brush these with butter – and so on, until you have laid and brushed each of the stacks of five sheet doughs.
8. Mix the nuts together with the sugar and the spices.
9. Sprinkle the chopped nuts to completely cover the top of the last stack of sheet dough
10. Stack the remaining five sheets of Phyllo dough and cut to measure with the wax paper (repeat Step 2).
11. Repeat Steps 5 – 8 (stacking and buttering the layers of sheet dough).
12. You may, at your discretion, add additional layers of sheet dough above and below the nut mixture – some makers make as many as 25 or 30 layers on top and below the nut mixture.
13. Cut the dough diagonally, making diamond-shaped pieces that are roughly 1 to 1 ½ inches at their widest point.
14. Pour half the remaining butter evenly over the top and bake for 15 minutes.
15. Pull the pan from the oven and pour on the rest of the butter. (The pan should “sizzle” when you do this).
16. Put back into the oven and bake for another 25 – 30 minutes, until the top of the dough is “pink.”
17. Remove the pan from the oven and gently drain off any excess butter. Cut one diamond from a corner and tilt it slightly – letting any remaining butter drain.
18. Pour the lukewarm simple syrup you have made evenly over the paklava while still warm.
19. Let it sit for about a half hour and then serve.

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