Puff Pastry Baklava

When I was in graduate school we had a guest speaker in class who happened to own a Moroccan restaurant. The topic he spoke on was unrelated to his business but he brought huge pieces of baklava for us. It was, without a doubt, the best baklava I have ever eaten. Maybe the best dessert I've ever eaten. I eat some kind of dessert almost every day, so that's saying something. It's at least in the top five desserts of my life.  I love honey, nuts, and pastry, so of course I would love baklava. If it's on the menu at a restaurant or I see it at a bakery I have to order it. 

But until last night I never tried to make it. I have cooked with phyllo dough before and didn't find it too difficult, but baklava seemed so complex. I was sure I'd mess it up. Certainly lots of bakeries and restaurants  make terrible baklava. I didn't want to waste the nuts, which are expensive, if I was going to make something that wasn't very good. 

Last night I was thinking about baking something and happened to come across a picture of baklava on pinterest. I remembered that I had a package of phyllo dough in the freezer and decided to take the plunge.  I was getting really excited to try and had found a bunch of tips on how to make great crispy layers. Then I opened the freezer and discovered that what I actually had was puff pastry dough. It was basically the worst tragedy to ever befall anyone. 

So as I always do in my time of need, I turned to the internet for guidance. I googled "puff pastry baklava" and found several recipes. I ended up using the pastry as a base and top with only nuts in the middle. This made it less crispy and flaky than traditional baklava but beggars can't be choosers.  So here is what I made, with inspiration from The Hazel Bloom, Bon Appetit, and NEONWILLIE's recipe at allrecipes. The reviews on that last recipe, in particular, are helpful. I learned that I should make the syrup before baking the baklava and then let it chill in the fridge before drizzling it over the finished pastry, which will help it be crisp. I also got some good tips for when I try to make it with phyllo dough. I also learned to cut through only 3/4 of the way before baking and adding the syrup, which will help the syrup absorb without just sitting in the bottom of the pan. 

Puff Pastry Baklava

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 cups water

2 cinnamon sticks

3/4 cup honey

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or 1/2 split and seeded vanilla bean)

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 cups pistachios

1 1/2 cups walnuts

1 tsp cinnamon

1 box (two sheets) puff pastry, defrosted

Combine the sugar and water over medium-high heat. Boil until sugar is completely dissolved. Add cinnamon sticks, honey, vanilla, and lemon juice. Simmer until thickened, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool slightly, then place in fridge. 

While the syrup is cooking, toast the nuts for 10 minutes in 350 degree oven. Let cool a little, then chop finely.  Combine with 1 tsp cinnamon and set aside. 

Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Unfold the defrosted puff pastry. Roll out to fit pan (you shouldn't have to stretch it out too much).  Lightly brush the top of the pastry with butter.  Spread the nut mixture over the pastry.

 Top with the second sheet. Brush the top with butter and cut into pieces, only cutting 3/4 of the way to the bottom (leaving the bottom pastry layer uncut as much as possible). I tried to cut mine into diamonds but it didn't work out that well.  

Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 until the tops are light golden.

Immediately after removing from the oven drizzle the syrup over the top of the pastry. It might take a few minutes to soak in. 

Let them cool completely before taking them out of the pan. 

I took mine out of the pan and then place them on a rack above a cookie sheet in order to let any excess syrup drain. I only did this after they were COMPLETELY cooled and I knew they had absorbed the syrup as much as possible. I forgot to take a picture of this step and to be honest I'm not sure it was completely necessary. I just wanted to make sure that they didn't get soggy. And they're not, so I guess it worked out okay. 

I covered the leftovers loosely in tin foil and kept them in the fridge. They're better if you allow them to come to room temperature instead of eating them cold right out of the fridge.  I think they turned out okay, but I definitely missed the flaky layers between the nuts. Next time I'm at the grocery store I'm going to pick up some phyllo dough to try the real thing. 

Cherry Preserves

I've been sitting here trying to think of something insightful to say about cherries, but I have nothing, so I'll say this: I like cherries. A lot. Sweet or sour, in jam, in pie, in black forest cake, in chutney, in ice cream. Growing up we had three cherry trees in our backyard and my mother would can what seemed like hundreds of jars of cherries every year. We ate them all winter. Now, though, my parents have moved from that house and their backyard has nothing but a dwarf peach tree which we're beginning to think will never actually produce fruit. There's a family-owned cherry orchard near my house, and I was able to get my hands on 10 pounds of bing cherries for around $30.
After they were pitted (which took about an hour and a half with a cherry pitter) I measured them into three 8 cup portions. I made two batches of cherry preserves and one of cherry jam.

For the preserves, I chopped about half the cherries in a food processor and left the rest whole so they would seem more preserve-y with whole pieces of fruit. I adapted a recipe from The Cilantropist for these preserves. I added a vanilla bean and substituted 1/4 tsp of almond extract for the amaretto, but otherwise the recipe was the same.

 This is what they looked like once they were cooked. It took a bit longer for the preserves to set than it said in the recipe, probably because I chose a humid day to make them.  This recipe made about four half-pint jars.

The preserves were great on toast, though a little sweeter than I usually like jam. They would be amazing on ice cream (or swirled into homemade ice cream) or pancakes.

For the jam, I used the recipe posted by Sugarcrafter. The only change I made was to use 1/2 tsp of rum extract instead of 2 tbsp of rum. I love this recipe, and it was exactly the right sweetness for toast or a sandwich.

All in all, I ended up with about six half pint jars of jam and nine of preserves. Total cost was about $45, including the cherries and jars. I borrowed my mother's water bath canner. Everybody's getting preserves for Christmas!

Water Marble Manicure

My nieces and I did this together on Sunday afternoon. They were thrilled with the results; I'm little less excited.  It took a long time to tape up our nails, but that step is absolutely vital unless you want to spend an hour cleaning up your fingers later.

My 4-year-old niece's nails. She picked different colors for each nail. Her manicure took the longest.

 You can find some great youtube tutorials for this technique. Basically, you take a cup with room temperature water, drop small drops of nail polish on the surface, use a toothpick to swirl/marble them together before the polish dries, then dip your finger in the water to transfer the pattern to your nail. It can get a pretty messy, and it takes a fair amount of practice to get good at creating patterns. But it creates a unique look. I thought my nails looked awful, but I got a lot of compliments on them. We used a white base coat to help the patterns show up better. I'd like to try again with different colored base coats. 

My 13-year-old niece's nails. I think hers turned out the best.

Mine. I really like both pinkies, but other than that I wasn't too impressed. 

Total Cost: Around $4, including base and top coats, polishes for swirling, tape, and toothpicks, and a disposable plastic cup for mixing.

Brioche

On Saturday night, my brother and I had plans to watch soccer together. We're both big Real Salt Lake fans and we alternate between each other's houses when we watch the game. I like to bring something with me when I go (although I'm lazy and I don't always get something made), so yesterday afternoon I got out some cookbooks and started thinking about something to make. A commenter at Jezebel  recently alerted me to the existence of pound cake cupcakes. I really wanted to make them but it was 7:00 and I was supposed to leave by 8:30 so I figured I might not have time. With new recipes I like to read the recipe several times and it still takes me longer the first time.  So I pulled out a brownie mix to take to my brother's. It did the job, though it wasn't great.

But. 

While I was looking for a pound cake recipe, I came across a recipe for chocolate chip and raisin brioche.  I have a brioche tray that I've been dying to use, so I resolved to make them for breakfast on Sunday morning. 

They turned out well, although not as moist as I'd have liked. Next time I'll bake them 2 or three minutes less. 

I adapted the recipe from 500 Cupcakes, by Fergal Connolly. 

Total cost: about $3, most of which was the chocolate chips and raisins. 

Before I die chalkboard

About two weeks ago, one of my friends told me about Candy Chang, an artist who created (among quite a lot else) a giant chalkboard on the side of an abandoned house where people could record their hopes for their lives. I was inspired by the idea of giving people a space to make their dreams public.  So I decided to make something similar for the place I work.
I'm a therapist at a drug treatment center. Most of our residents are veterans; virtually all were homeless before they moved in.  A major task for the men who come here is to develop hope for what their lives could be like without drugs or alcohol.  So I showed photos of the original project to my boss and she said I could have some wall space to hang my chalkboard.
I originally planned to just buy a chalkboard and stencil it, but I discovered that it's nigh impossible to buy a large chalkboard in a store anymore. I went to Staples, Office Max, Target, Walmart, and several craft and teacher supply stores. I considered ordering one online, but they were expensive (the cheapest suitable one I found was 24 by 30 and cost $60) and I'm an impatient kind of person. So I followed the suggestions of coworkers and craft store employees and bought some plywood and chalkboard paint.

I also bought some white spray paint, though I ended up not using it since I was worried about overspray. I had to force myself to use primer (again, I'm impatient) but I suppose it was a good thing I did. I let the board dry overnight and then used stencils I had persuaded my grandmother to make with her die cutting machine.  We originally made a large "Before I die..." stencil for the top and a smaller "Before I die I want to______" stencil for the rest of the board. Later I decided since it was a fairly small board (2 feet tall and four feet long) that we'd just use the big stencil and leave the rest  blank.

A few of the guys helped me hang it on Monday morning. Here's what it looked like that night when I left. The guys seem to like it, and I'm glad I didn't use the smaller stencil, because people have started drawing pictures  on it too.

Total cost, including several boxes of chalk and an eraser: about $35.