On December 31 we always prepare banitsa (cheese pastry) for the New Year’s Eve dinner and baklava for New Year’s breakfast. This time Julia, a Fulbright researcher in Sofia, joined me in the kitchen. I gave a banitsa and baklava workshop to her and she made her own banitsa. Here’s the recipe for baklava.

Baklava

Baklava is a traditional New Year's dish in our family. We usually eat it at breakfast on New Year Day.

Ingredients: 1 cup pounded walnut meats, 4 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 packet (12 g) baking powder, 1 cup melted butter, 1 lb. phyllo* dough

Syrup: 3 cups water, 0.5 tsp. lemon acid, 2 cups sugar

Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with some melted butter. Cut the folded phyllo sheets into strips 2-3 mm wide. Next unfold the strips to make them fluffy. Divide the strips into two equal halves. Cover the baking dish with half of the stripped phyllo dough. Pour half of the quantity of the melted butter on top of the phyllo.

Filling: Pound walnuts with a wooden mallet into small pieces. Beat slightly 4 eggs in a large bowl. Add sugar, flour, baking powder, and walnuts. Cover the phyllo layer with the filling. Add the remaining part of the phyllo strips over the filling and pour the rest of the melted butter on top of it. Bake in an oven for approximately 30 minutes until brown. Next cool for 10 minutes.

Pour cold syrup on top of hot baklava.

Syrup: Boil water, sugar and lemon acid for 10 minutes. Let cool completely.

*This word can be spelled in three different ways: phyllo, fillo and filo.