Almond and Pistachio Baklava

Baklava is a dessert steeped in history. It dates back to as far as the 8th century B.C., eaten largely by the rich and wealthy across the Roman, Persian and Byzantine empire with various Greek, Lebanese, Turkish and Armenian iterations. As a lover of anything sweet and rich (i.e. Indian desserts), the discovery of baklava here in Canada was somewhat of a revelation. Unfortunately for me and my jeans, my family has become consistently good at bringing a box of two to birthday parties. It’s certainly not cheap, but as a special occasion treat, it’s absolutely worth the guilt.

According to wikipedia, the baklava I’ve been making is of the Persian variety, using ground almond and pistachio spiced with cardamom and then drenched in rose water syrup.  However, another source claims that the addition of rose water is an Arab tradition. Either way, I highly recommend using rose water as it makes for something extra special. Fleur d’oranger with honey is also a great substitute.

Pistachio and Almond Baklava

Ingredients
1lbs of filo pastry
2/3 cup of melted unsalted butter

For the fillings
3 cups of coarsely ground nuts (I chose pistachio and almonds)
1 1/4 cups icing sugar
1 tbsp ground cardamom

For the syrup
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups water
2 tbsp rose water

Place sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes until thick and syrupy. Stir in the rose water and set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together icing sugar, cardamom, and your choice of nuts.

Take out your filo pastry and cut according to the size of your baking pan.

Before assembling the baklava, butter up the pan. Take one sheet of filo pastry and brush it with melted butter and gently lay it down on the pan. Continue until you have six buttered layers assembled. Spread half of the nut mixture as evenly as you can. Take another six sheets of filo pastry, brushed with butter, and lay them on top of the nuts. Sprinkle the remaining nuts and top once again with the final layers of six filo sheets. Cut the pastry into lozenges and pour what’s left of your butter on top.

Bake for 20 minutes at 325F. Increase the heat to 400F and bake again for 15 minutes until the baklava turns a pale golden colour and puffs up.

Remove from the oven and drizzle most of the syrup over the pastry, reserving the rest for serving after it has cooled down.

And there. Easy peasy, right? You can eat it as soon as it has cooled down, give them as gifts, or make it for a holiday potluck.

Happy Baking!

Eggless Almond Cardamom Cookies

My grandmother is the best cook I know. From the bits and pieces that I do know about her childhood, it wasn’t very easy for her growing up. Like a lot of women back then, especially as the oldest daughter, she dropped out of school at a very early age to take care of her family. I suppose since I’m aware of the various opportunities that do exist out there now, I’m surprised she doesn’t seem at all bitter or regretful about this. It’s just how things were. She married my grandfather and they opened a small grocery shop back in the home country where they would sell her homemade snacks and treats – my mother and her sisters would wake up early to help her prep before going to school.

Her “bestseller” was a manioc/cassava pudding, which she still makes from time to time. Her recent favourite though, for the past few years, has been her version of this delightfully sweet Indian pudding using semolina. It’s incredibly aromatic, using cardamom, almonds and cinnamon. While it can just be eaten as in with some warm milk, she usually rolls the pudding into small balls and tops them with shaved coconuts. We traditionally eat them in the morning for breakfast, heated in the microwave. These Eggless Almond Cardamom Cookies aren’t quite the same, but the flavours and smell are almost identical, especially while they’re baking.

They’re perfect for tea and not overly sweet if you cut down on the sugar. The original recipe asked for whole wheat flour, but I went with a combo of white and whole wheat. I also accidentally used less butter than asked for (1/4 cup less…), which ended working out well. I suppose if you use the entire 3/4 cup than just 1/2 of butter, they’ll end up being more like a shortbread.

Eggless Almond Cardamom Cookies
Adapted from Cooking and Me via Manjula’s Kitchen
Makes approx. 30 medium-sized cookies

Ingredients
1 cup of all purpose flour + 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds*
3/4 tsp green cardamom seed coarsely powdered
1/2 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
About 2-3 tablespoons of milk (only if you need it)

Mix flour, sugar, almonds and cardamom in a bowl.

Add softened butter to the flour mixture and mix until the dough becomes soft and crumbly. Gradually add in the milk until the dough sticks together and is easy to shape. If you’ve added too much milk and you find that the dough is too wet, just add in some more flour a little bit at a time until it is the right consistency.

Shape the dough into 30 little balls and place on parchment or ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten the dough ball a bit and top the unbaked cookies with an almond for decoration.

Bake in a 360F pre-heated oven for 18 minutes or until they are a light golden brown. Once they’ve browned, take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool down for a minute or two before taking them off the cookie sheet to a cooling rack.

*For the almonds, I roasted them in a pan for about 3 minutes before chopping and lightly grinding them to get a mix of coarse and ground almonds.

Cocoa Brownies with chocolate chunks

So, these Cocoa Brownies have been making their rounds across the internet for a while now. Desserts for Breakfast added black cocoa powder to make Midnight Cocoa Brownies, The Sophisticated Gourmet made a slightly healthier version by using whole wheat flour and sugar cane juice, and Honey & Jam‘s was the one that I liked best because…well…because it used ingredients that I had on hand and the baking instruction, for once, finally said I could use a microwave instead of a double boiler.

After a week of literally daydreaming about making them, I finally caved in on Wednesday night and whipped up a batch after dinner. I cut down the amount of sugar, which was unnecessary but it did make me feel less guilty, and threw in some dark chocolate chunks. As everyone has been saying, these cocoa brownies are moist, rich, and not at all sweet.  They were a perfect late night dessert served with a glass of cold milk OR green tea. (Seriously, green tea and chocolate? So good. A piece of brownie fell in my mug and I’m now on a quest to infuse green tea with a chocolate dessert). My family and I ate them while watching a pre-recorded episode of Survivor. (Boston Rob, still a hunk!) It was a good night.

Just an aside: Even though I knew I had enough light, I stupidly decided to set my camera at 800 and 1600….Ugh. Now I can’t get rid of the graininess and it’s really bothering me because I can’t do too much editing without it being super noticeable.

Recipe under the cut.

light & airy

From last summer when we first tried O&B Canteen.