Happy Birthday B&B!

Though things have been extremely hectic on my end lately, I wanted to make sure that B&B’s first birthday didn’t go by unnoticed.  Over the last year, B&B has been a place for me to share my thoughts, stories, recipes  — and most recently, my sorrows.  Thank you so much lovely readers for being there with me on this journey, and for supporting B&B with your comments and emails!

Funnily enough, a couple of days before B&B’s birthday, I received a text message from my friend Dina saying “I am making baklava tomorrow, want to come over and babble?”.  I could not help but laugh to myself, but also thought – what better way to celebrate B&B’s birthday! So..off to Dina’s I went, and babble and baklava we did.  In honour of this very special occasion, I have a tried and tested baklava recipe for you.  Make sure to make it in the company of good friends so that you too can babble & baklava! Special thanks to Dina over at thispassinglife and to Step by Step Baking (Caroline Bretherton) from whom the recipe was adapted.

Ingredients:

Unsalted pistachios (ground) – as much as you would like

Walnuts (ground) – as much as you would like

1 cup sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

1 package of phyllo pastry

18 tbsp of unsalted butter

juice of 1 lemon

1 cup of honey

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Mix together the pistachios, walnuts, cinnamon and 1/4 cup of the sugar

3. Melt the butter – brush the baking sheet with butter and lay down 1/3 of the phyllo sheets. To do this, alternate between 1 sheet of phyllo, and 1 layer of brushed butter until you have completed 1/3 of the sheets.

4. Scatter 1/2 of the nut mixture over top of the phyllo.

5. Lay down another third of the phyllo sheets as before and cover with the remaining half of the nut mixture.

6. Lay down the final third of the phyllo sheets as before.

7. Cut diagonals into the baklava, making your cuts half deep.

8. Bake on the low shelf for 1 1/4 hours – 1 1/2 hours

9.  Now prepare the honey:  Heat the remaining sugar with 1 cup of water, stirring occasionally. Pour in the honey and stir to mix. Allow the mixture to boil for 25 minutes (take care that it does not boil over). Test the heat of the mixture using a sugar thermometer (you want it to reach 239 F)

10. Remove the heat and let it reach a lukewarm temperature.

11. When the baklava is finished, remove from the oven and immediately pour the syrup over the entire pan.

12. Cut through the marked lines almost to the bottom to allow the syrup to seep through.

Enjoy!

Picture of the week: Spring has Sprung

I took this picture last week while out for a run. A few days later I passed by the same plant again and noticed that someone had chopped off all the branches! I guess they didn’t find it as pretty as I did!