Girls on Wheels members Vicki Baker, Nancy Burns, Karen Dipietro, Shirley Monge, Susan Hebert, and Lois Reinhart bring a flavor of Greece to our taste buds.
Vicki Baker
There’s something special about baklava. It elicits hungry groans of longing from whoever is near, whenever it’s mentioned. It’s superbly delicious. The crunchy nuts and flaky pastry defy their natural properties and completely and utterly melt in your mouth. It’s almost too much to handle. Well, almost.
Girls on Wheels member Karen Dipietro was quick to show to us how this beloved Greek dessert can be made in our very own kitchen! Handed down through generations of her Greek roots, Karen’s recipe consisted of delicate, flaky sheets of phyllo dough layered with a walnut and cinnamon filling and then soaked in a sweet honey syrup.
Baklava is best made in a cozy kitchen with a drink in hand and friends by our side. It can’t be rushed, simplified, or made less messy. It’s a process unmarred by fancy utensils or tools, needing little more than our hands and a paint brush.
With paint brush ready, we started layering. First, a phyllo sheet is laid down in the baking pan, then brushed with melted butter. Repeat. Dipping in butter, painting the pastry; dipping in butter, painting the pastry; over and over, again and again, gingerly layering each sheet until we had a stack two to three inches high. A cinnamon-nut mixture was spread across the buttered phyllo layers, smoothing and patting with our hands to evenly distribute.
Now the challenge: cutting it into individual pieces. Taking a knife, we gently sliced across the dough diagonally. The top layer fidgeted and stuck to our hands, but it was nothing patience and a sharp blade couldn’t handle. Then we sliced the dough once more vertically so we created diamond shapes. A whole clove was then inserted into each piece. The baklava was sent off to be baked for about an hour until the pastry puffed and browned lightly around the edges, the buttery, nutty smell warming the kitchen.
While our baklava was baking, the sugar syrup was made and left to cool to room temperature. As soon as the baklava was pulled from the oven, the syrup was poured over the entire surface, making sure to cover every square inch.
But no tasting yet. It sits overnight so the syrup can penetrate and soften the layers. By morning, an abundance of baklava—the perfect companion to our morning coffee or tea. But not to be too disappointed, Karen had made an extra pastry the previous day, ready for us to indulge in now.
Girls on Wheels officially decided that baklava is one of our favorite desserts. It was surprisingly easy to make and even more surprisingly easy to eat. It caused our taste buds to short-circuit—at least, that’s the only explanation we had as to why our fullness receptors and calorie concerns seemed mysteriously out of sync whenever a piece was placed in front of us.
Oh, and no, it definitely wasn’t too much to handle. We indulged in yet another piece the next morning.