This past Christmas one of my associates made some chocolate baklava that was so delicious, I’m surprised I got any work done that day because I kept creeping back and forth into the office to indulge myself. And I’ve been craving it since then. Unfortunately, life gets really hectic and we don’t always have time to do everything we’d like to, so I’m only just getting around to trying to create a recipe for it myself. I’ve only ever made baklava one time in my life. I was in the beginners baking class in Culinary School, and we soaked it in an orange liquor simple syrup mixture. We all made one batch as a class and had to let it sit overnight. Most of us had never had this dessert before and were extremely anxious to come in the next day and try it. To sound really lame, I’m pretty sure I missed out on sleep that night from excitement. What can I say, I’m a girl that loves my sweets!
We went into the class the next morning and very first thing, our Chef instructor served us pieces for breakfast. The class took our first bites together. Silence. Widened eyes. Blank stares. I spit mine out and yelled ‘Why the hell does this taste like cough syrup??’ Even our instructor couldn’t keep chewing her bite. Something had gone horribly wrong, and I just decided I did not like baklava. If all of the work, butter, and sugar could produce that bad of a taste, I never even wanted to try it again.
Luckily I had completely avoided any contact with the stuff for 7 years. Not even a mention of it, until my newest cake decorator had brought some into work as a gift for the holidays. I didn’t want to be rude so I took a piece and very skeptically headed it towards my mouth. It was like slow motion. I kept thinking of the horrible taste that day all of those years ago. I pictured myself accidentally spitting it right back in her face. I wondered if I could act well enough to swallow it down, and if I would make it in the bathroom in time to throw it back up. Baklava was my only bad dessert experience in life and I may have blown the whole thing out of proportion in regards to my dislike for it. It was here, the flaky pastry was touching my lips. I bit down. Chewed. Chewed some more. Shoved the whole piece in my mouth before I was done chewing the first bite. Next thing I knew I was grabbing another piece. This was amazing!! It was rich, sweet, buttery, and delicious. After eating three pieces in a row, I spent the entire rest of the day either eating baklava, or picturing myself eating baklava. I was in love.
I hated myself. Not for eating so much of it, of course not, but for avoiding this heavenly pastry all of that time! I had been missing out on amazingness and all from one bad experience. Donna had completely changed everything, she showed me why baklava is such a big deal. Why everyone loves it, because if done correctly, it really is the best dessert one can have.
Now, smarty-pants McGee, thinks based on my knowledge of pastry making, and the fact that I HELPED make baklava one time 7 years ago I could figure out a recipe on my own and make it sheer perfection. I’m an idiot. I quizzed Donna on her layering and set out in the grocery store on my own accord to gather my ingredients. I spent some time in the frozen food aisle and somehow kept passing up the fillo dough. I went to the next aisle over and asked the clerk where I could find it. She walked me over there and in a very beautiful, thick Bosnian accent asked me what I was making. I told her, and her eyes got very big and said, ‘that is from my country!’ (Bosnia, gets most of it’s culinary influences from Turkey where baklava originated.) How lucky was I?? I told her I really didn’t have a plan for it, except to put chocolate between the layers. She told me how she grew up in Bosnia making it all the time, and she still makes it for her family here quite often. Her expertise tips and tricks are the only way I was able to make my recipe perfect. I would have ruined it otherwise because everything she told me I needed to do…I wasn’t planning on doing before.
Firstly, 10 layers of fillo on the bottom, 4 between each filling layer, and 10 on top. Cut your pieces BEFORE baking. Bake at a very low temperature for an hour and a half or else you will burn all of the sugar. Cool simple syrup mixture before pouring over hot pastry. If using nuts, they need to be very finely chopped, pecan meal is also very popular.
Now that I had my ingredients and authentic tips I was ready. And I must admit, not only does my baklava recipe look really pretty, this is one that I am most proud of. A BIG thank you to Donna and Svedva for helping me out. I enjoyed this with some Nutcracker Sweet tea, that tastes very similar to vanilla, and I’ve also been having it for breakfast with coffee. I hope you have fun making it, and enjoy!!!
Chocolate Baklava:
1 box fillo dough (thawed)
1 pound butter (melted)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup cocoa powder
½ cup granulated sugar
Simple sugar mixture:
2 cups water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup honey
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| Butter every single piece of fillo |
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Grease the bottom of a cookie sheet. Mix chocolate chips, cocoa powder and sugar in a bowl. Carefully roll out fillo dough from package. Have damp cloth completely covering dough while you’re using it or else it will dry out very quickly and will not be useable. On greased sheet place one piece of dough, brush with butter, and layer next piece, do this 10 times. Sprinkle 1/3 of chocolate mixture over dough. Layer piece of fillo on top of mixture, brush with butter, and do this 4 times so there are four sheets in total, Yes, brush every single piece of fillo with butter. Add another 1/3 of mixture, four pieces of dough, then remaining mixture. Top with 10 pieces of dough (you better be buttering every single piece!) With a paring knife, cut dough into nice even pieces, (I did triangles) before baking. Bake for an 1 ½ hours to 2 hours until light brown and flaky.
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| Keep dough covered! |
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| One layer of filling |
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| Cut pieces before baking |
While baking combine water, sugar, and honey in small sauce pot. Boil on medium/high heat until sugar is dissolved and you have a nice syrup. Let cool. Once baklava is baked and out of the oven, pour syrup over hot pastry. Cover with foil and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
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