Baklava

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon 
• 0.3 teaspoon ground cloves 
• 225 g honey 
• 1  optional: lemon halved
• 1 teaspoons nutmeg freshly grated
• 1  cranberry-orange relish halved
• 250 g pistachios finely chopped
• 0.3 teaspoon salt 
• 1  package phyllo pastry sheets frozen thawed (approx 400g)
• 250 g sugar 
• 340 g butter unsalted cooled melted
• 250 g walnuts finely chopped
• 160 g water 
• 500 g almonds whole finely chopped

Equipment

• bowl
• sauce pan
• oven
• knife
• whisk
• sieve
• baking pan
• kitchen towels

Directions

1. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan. Squeeze juice from lemon and orange into sugar mixture and then throw the halves in as well. .
2. Add the cinnamon sticks. Bring the mixture to a boil over moderate heat until sugar is dissolved, then simmer 10 minutes. Skim as necessary. Stir in the honey and return to a boil.
3. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
4. Pour through a sieve into a large bowl and discard the fruit rind while leaving the cinnamon stick inside. Chill until completely cold. NOTE: One time, we left the fruit halves in thinking it might draw out more of the citrus flavour into the syrup. Turns out, that it makes it rather strong and it's best to discard it before cooling it. Make the Baklava: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 170C.
5. Whisk together almonds, walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt until combined well.
6. Brush a 13x9 inch baking dish with melted butter.
7. Cut the phyllo sheets into half along the width and stack them all up. Keep stack covered with a dampened clean kitchen towel to prevent it from drying out.
8. Lay 2 sheets of phyllo in bottom of baking dish and brush top sheet with butter. Continue to layer 2 sheets at a time, staggering sheets in each double layer slightly to cover bottom of dish, then brushing every second sheet with butter, until you have used 10 sheets of phyllo total. After brushing top layer of phyllo with butter, spread about 1 1/2 cups of nut mixture over it. Spoon over 2 tablespoons butter.Repeat this layering process 3 more times. Top with 10 more sheets of phyllo. (You will use 50 sheets of phyllo total.) Butter top and let baklava stand at room temperature for the butter to firm up slightly to facilitate cutting, 10 to 15 minutes.Using a sharp knife, cut baklava into 16 equal rectangles, then cut each piece in half diagonally, making sure to cut all the way through.
9. Bake baklava until golden, 50 minutes to 1 hour.
10. Transfer dish to a rack to cool, then slowly pour cold syrup around edges of hot baklava, in between all cuts, and over top.
11. Let stand at room temperature at least 8 hours. (Cover once baklava is at room temperature.) Do not chill.