June 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge - From Phyllo to Baklava

I'm not a huge fan of Baklava, but I've only ever had it one time. What I was most excited about was the challenge of making home-made Phyllo. I even bought a new rolling pin for this challenge (and also because I broke my cheap one I got from Walmart)

Let me just add, that I WASN'T a huge fan of Baklava, but I have now been converted. AMAZING! I'll be making this for my mom next time I go home, because she Loves Baklava. I'm convinced that if she likes the stuff that I could hardly stomach, She will be blown away by this recipe. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Erica!

Home-made Phyllo is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than the store bought stuff... And sooooooooooo much more frustrating.... But all that frustration is worth it in the end.

Blog-checking lines: Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making home-made phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.


Again, I'm going to send you over to the Daring Kitchen Website to check out all the other Daring Baker's Creations this month, and to get the Recipe.... Although I'm sure I'll be adding the Phyllo recipe at some point because I LOVE it!


I bought roasted Unsalted Sun-split California Pistachios and hand-shelled them. Because of that, I cheated a little and bought Ground Almonds, and I already had Walnuts at home. I split the amount of Walnuts in half and replaced the half with Hazelnuts... (the real reason I bought the ground almonds? They were cheaper)

I ground up the nuts in my Magic Bullet (which sounds dirty, but its not, and if you don't have one, you should get one, because they are awesome... especially if you like smoothies)

I couldn't find whole All-spice Berries, so I just used about 1/3 tsp of the ground allspice, and to save some dishes, I just used ground cinnamon too.



I'm sorry my pictures are not so good, It's been pouring rain all day, and the light is crap. But here they are. I don't have much else to say about this month's challenge, except that I loved it. And I plan on using the phyllo recipe again and again. Thanks Erica for a great Challenge!!!