Between the many weddings, graduations, and outdoor adventures of summer, Erica and I find it a bit difficult to schedule time for baking. Thankfully, San Francisco weather took a turn for the bizarre, and instead of attending a blue grass festival, rain forced us indoors to roll out sheets and sheets of phyllo dough. (Fun(?) fact? This was the first time on record that it rained in SF on June 4th).
The prospect of phyllo dough made us nervous. So many sheets to make! Typically, so very bad at making things as thin as they need to be! So we read through the comments, and came across the best advice of all - buy 00 flour. 00 flour is the finest ground flour in Italy (and also provides the name for one of my favorite SF restaurants -
Zero Zero). We picked up a small bag at Whole Foods, and proceeded to make some of the thinnest, most pliable doughs I have ever worked with. Miracle of miracles!
We rolled and rolled and rolled, and stacked and stacked and stacked. We decided to make spanakopita as well, so we rolled and rolled and rolled some more. Cat helped us out with the nut mixture - a divine combination of flavors. I sauteed up some spinach and feta as well. We used an ungodly amount of butter.
The worse part about baklava? Having to wait an ENTIRE DAY to eat it. We baked it and watched as our piles of dough transformed into flaky goodness.
Instead of devouring it though, we poured on the honey mixture, and satiated ourselves with spanikopita (as well as both Wet Hot American Summer and Bridget Jones' Diary).
The next day, we agreed to meet at the old Castro theater for a showing of West Side Story. I dutifully wrapped up the baklava and packed it into tupperware containers. And in the middle of one of the saddest stories of all time, we happily munched on some of the best baklava I have ever tasted. Dare I say we're on a roll?
Between the many weddings, graduations, and outdoor adventures of summer, Erica and I find it a bit difficult to schedule time for baking. Thankfully, San Francisco weather took a turn for the bizarre, and instead of attending a blue grass festival, rain forced us indoors to roll out sheets and sheets of phyllo dough. (Fun(?) fact? This was the first time on record that it rained in SF on June 4th).
The prospect of phyllo dough made us nervous. So many sheets to make! Typically, so very bad at making things as thin as they need to be! So we read through the comments, and came across the best advice of all - buy 00 flour. 00 flour is the finest ground flour in Italy (and also provides the name for one of my favorite SF restaurants - Zero Zero). We picked up a small bag at Whole Foods, and proceeded to make some of the thinnest, most pliable doughs I have ever worked with. Miracle of miracles!
We rolled and rolled and rolled, and stacked and stacked and stacked. We decided to make spanakopita as well, so we rolled and rolled and rolled some more. Cat helped us out with the nut mixture - a divine combination of flavors. I sauteed up some spinach and feta as well. We used an ungodly amount of butter.
The worse part about baklava? Having to wait an ENTIRE DAY to eat it. We baked it and watched as our piles of dough transformed into flaky goodness.
Instead of devouring it though, we poured on the honey mixture, and satiated ourselves with spanikopita (as well as both Wet Hot American Summer and Bridget Jones' Diary).
The next day, we agreed to meet at the old Castro theater for a showing of West Side Story. I dutifully wrapped up the baklava and packed it into tupperware containers. And in the middle of one of the saddest stories of all time, we happily munched on some of the best baklava I have ever tasted. Dare I say we're on a roll?
2 comments:
Your baklava looks delicious!!! Thrilled that you enjoyed the challenge. Great job
This WAS delicious! I think from now on, all Daring Bakers challenges should be eaten in the Castro Theater!
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