<\/a>Far and Tom Making Baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>Cardamom Baklava Recipe <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>15913108797_5bc8665561_k <\/p><\/li><\/ul><\/noscript><\/div>\n
It turns out that this is where the hard part starts. Not impossibly hard, but definitely the most time-consuming and difficult part of the whole process. Shawna and Tom put their heads together on this project and using a variety of tools mixed with pure determination cut the tray into perfect diamonds. They baked at 350 for about 40 minutes and then after they had cooled, Far slowly poured the syrup over the entire tray. <\/p>\n
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<\/a>Shawna and Tom Cutting Baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>Cutting Persian Baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>Persian Baklava in Oven <\/p><\/li><\/ul><\/noscript><\/div>\n
Far made sure that we knew throughout the baklava making process that though this was his recipe, everybody makes baklava a little differently and so we needed to experiment and figure out what our personal baklava style was. Challenge accepted Far! We take our homework seriously and so made our first solo batch as soon as we could while visiting Michael’s (Tom’s Dad’s) bee farm. We decided to use the fresh ingredients that are both plentiful and free here and made a macadamia nut-honey baklava. <\/p>\n
Michael’s bees help pollinate the macadamia nut orchard next to his property, and so he has access to the farm and it’s nuts. We started by walking through the orchard and gathering a ton of macadamia nuts. We pulled the leathery outer shell of the macadamias off while we gathered them. <\/p>\n
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<\/a>Jenny gathering macademia nuts for baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>Michael and Jenny gathering mac nuts <\/p><\/li><\/ul><\/noscript><\/div>\n
Once we got back to the farm we used a nutcracker to crack the impossibly hard inner shell of the nut and removed the raw nut until we had a big bowl-full. <\/p>\n
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<\/a>cracking the macademia nuts for baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>shelling the macademia nuts for baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>shelling macademias for baklava <\/p><\/li><\/ul><\/noscript><\/div>\n
We roasted the nuts at a low temperature (250 F) for 20 minutes to get them just a little bit brown, and then pulsed the nuts (about 3 cups worth) in a food processor with a teaspoon of cinnamon and a quarter cup of sugar. <\/p>\n
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<\/a>roasting the macademia nuts for baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>grinding the macademia nuts <\/p><\/li><\/ul><\/noscript><\/div>\n
We made the syrup by heating 2 cups of fresh honey from the farm and 2\/3 cup water on low heat with juice from one lime and a sprinkle of cinnamon. In retrospect, we should have just used straight honey, I think it would have been better. <\/p>\n
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<\/a>Tom and Michael getting honey for baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>pulling honey for baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>fresh honey for baklava <\/p><\/li><\/ul><\/noscript><\/div>\n
We melted the butter in the microwave and then got down to business! We followed the method we had learned from Far and layered the fillo dough, butter and nut mixture. <\/p>\n
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<\/a>butter for baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>Tom making baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>Making baklava in Hawaii <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>buttering the fillo for baklava <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>adding a layer of macademia nuts <\/p><\/li><\/ul><\/noscript><\/div>\n
Now came for the cutting! Tom and Shawna did a really nice and careful job of cutting the batch we made with Far into perfect, beautiful diamonds. Apparently when Tom’s cutting partner goes from Shawna to me, things get a little wonkier. We pulled them out and let them cool before pouring our honey syrup on top. <\/p>\n
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<\/a>hawaiian baklava out of the oven <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>hawaiian baklava baking <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>Pouring honey over baklava <\/p><\/li><\/ul><\/noscript><\/div>\n
Our major worry, when we were waiting for them to bake, was the fact that the only absolute that Far gave us ws to NEVER, EVER use salted butter, but that’s all we had on hand.<\/p>\n
Verdict was… not too salty! Here is a side by side comparison of each of the baklavas, Persian style is on the left and Hawaiian style is on the right. What we learned from this experiment is that lime does not replace rose water, cardamom is really good, macadamia nuts are really good, and baklava is really good no matter how you make it. <\/p>\n
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<\/a>Persion Baklava Diamond <\/p><\/li>
<\/a>close up of hawaiian baklava <\/p><\/li><\/ul><\/noscript><\/div>\n
The most important lesson we learned about making baklava is this: It is highly addictive so have many people to share it with unless you are comfortable with eating obscene amounts of baklava in one night! \n <\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\nFar’s Recipe<\/strong><\/p>\nIngredients:<\/strong> \n1 pkg fillo \n20oz almonds \n10 oz powdered sugar \n1 tbsp cardamon \n1 cup melted butter \nSyrup Ingredients \n20 oz white sugar \n1.5 cup water \nup to 1\/4 cup rose water depending on taste (optional)<\/p>\nMethod:<\/strong> \nUse a food processor to chop almonds, powdered sugar and cardamom. \nButter the bottom of a cookie sheet. \nStack about 4 layers of fillo on the cookie sheet. \nButter the top fillo layer and add 4 more sheets. \nButter the top layer and add half of the nut mixture. \nPlace 4 more sheets on top, butter and add the rest of the nuts. \nAdd your remaining sheets on top and butter. \nCut. laboriously. \nbake at 350 for 45-60 minutes. \nRemove from oven and pour cooled syrup on top. \nSyrup Method \nMix sugar and water and heat on low, stirring until all sugar has melted. \nContinue to stir until it thickens and then add rose water of you are using it. \nRemove from heat and allow to cool. <\/p>\nNow I encourage you as Far encouraged us, go forth and experiment! What kind of concoctions can you come up with? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our friend Shawna is really great, but even if she wasn’t we would possibly continue to be friends with her to get the opportunity to see her parents Marie and Farzin. I guess it...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[33,37,6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Easy Baklava Recipe made Two Ways<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n