Aunt Artie's Baklava

My Aunt Artie gave me a tutorial of how she makes her baklava. This is the recipe she learned from her mom (my Yia-Yia). It might some patience to put the dessert together, but in the words of Aunt Artie, "you can't mess it up!" It is the perfect authentic Greek dessert for entertaining a large crowd since the recipe makes close to 100 baklava.

Aunt Artie's Baklava
Source: My Aunt Artie and Yia-Yia
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Makes: 75-100 baklava
   
Ingredients:
**Syrup**
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
3/4 sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cinnamon sticks
**Baklava**
1 lb phyllo dough - thawed
1 lb unsalted butter - melted
1-1/2 lb to 2 lbs chopped walnuts (not ground too fine)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

** You can also cut down the walnuts and add in about a 1/2 cup of almonds for a more distinct flavor **

Instructions:
1. Mix chopping nuts, cinnamon, and sugar together and set aside.
2. Split the pound of phyllo dough in half. You will use a half of a pound for each for each of the two 13X9 pans. With a pastry brush, line the first pan with butter and then begin layering the phyllo one sheet at a time, buttering each sheet. Fold sides in if necessary. Use a minimum of 7 sheets for the bottom layer.
3. After the 7th sheet of phyllo, spread a quarter of the nut mixture over the phyllo. Layer 4 more sheets of phyllo, buttering between each sheet.
4. Spread a quarter more of the nut mixture over the phyllo dough. Finish the rest of the 1/2 pound of phyllo dough by buttering and layering the sheets. Make sure the top sheet is tear and wrinkle free.

5. Place the first pan in the refrigerator and repeat the previous steps to the second pan.
6. Remove pans from refrigerator and cut in squares or diamonds about half way through. Cloves can be added to hold the pieces together.

7. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for a minimum of 30 minutes. Check to see that it is browning evenly. You can turn pan around to make sure it browns evenly and can be started on the middle to low rack and then moved up one.
8. Boil ingredients for the syrup until sugar is dissolved and set aside to cool COMPLETELY.
9. When baklava comes out of the oven, pour the cooled syrup over it with a ladle. You will probably not use all the syrup. You want the baklava to be moist but not drippy. Let the baklava sit and soak up the syrup before cutting the pieces and placing them into the baking cups. Store the baklava in a cool place sealed tightly.

Aunt Artie's Baklava

TIPS:

To help the pieces stay together:

Secure each piece with a clove as shown in the photo to the left. The cloves not only hold the layers together, but also help add to the flavor. 

For the end pieces:

To avoid wasting some of the pan, you can use the edges that are not complete pieces and use them for baklava sundaes. Scoop vanilla ice cream into a bowl, crush up the extra baklava edges on top, and drizzle with hot fudge.