One of my top five desserts: Baklava...

ONLY if it is made properly. If it is not sweet enough, too sweet, too soggy, not enough nuts, too many nuts - any of these lead to a not so great baklava. I also do not like the ones with all walnuts, they tend to taste a little bitter, and I don't like the rolled up, circular, super ground pistachio ones, that's not real baklava! I like the basic, simple diamond shape. It is functional, easy, and the texture is great.

I had some phyllo left over from the baked brie and phyllo recipe, so I decided to experiment with baklava. After reading a few recipes on the web, I went into the kitchen and concocted my own.

I used only very simple ingredients, I don't like to mess around with my baklava! If you have vegan margerine, this recipe can easily be veganified. I ate a whole tray of this stuff, in three days. Ooops.

Ingredients:

2 cups of mixed nuts, chopped into small bits
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
12 sheets of phyllo
1/4 cup margarine or butter, melted
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp honey (to veganify, try with maple syrup or omit this ingredient totally)
1/3 cup sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Mix the nuts, cinnamon and brown sugar in a bowl and set aside.
3. In a pot, boil the water, sugar and honey for 10 minutes. set aside.
4. Brush 6 sheets of phyllo with margerine, layered on top of one another in a casserole dish, or cookie sheet.
5. Take all of your nuts and spread evenly on top of the brushed margerine sheets.
6. Brush the other 6 sheets of phyllo with margerine and layer on top of the nuts.
7. With a sharp knife, score the top of the phyllo lengthwise, then width wise to either make rectangles or diamonds.
8. score each square or diamond with slits
9. bake for 30 minutes, or until super golden brown.
10. Take a large spoon, and pour the sugar syrup all over the phyllo. Try to get it evenly distributed.
11. Let it cool down and enjoy!!