I don’t know what the hell has came over me lately. For nearly the last 12 months I have been in need of, or have a huge desire to consume desserts. It’s blowing my mind a bit. I never used to really even think about desserts. I wouldn’t think about eating them, ordering them, or making them. My guess is that I only began making desserts because of my love for my wife and kids and their desire to eat something sweet. Now… Me? I hate to say it but I’m kind of hooked and I’m ready to give up this habit, but I will admit that I almost feel like why the heck didn’t I indulge a bit in years past? I can’t believe how great a bite or two of sweets really can be up until now!

So I was on the move recently. The move to using up as many apples as I could before my wife and kid(s) ate them all up from our recent adventure at the orchard for apple picking. We are now down to only a handful of apples, which is great in terms of the ‘apple a day’ (granted it has not kept my doctor away), and thankfully I was able to grab a few apples and come up with a great take on a fall dessert.

This recipe doesn’t get much more simple. Butter, phyllo, apples, cinnamon, sugar. C’mon. If the smells don’t get you, the phyllo dough will. I will pretty much guarantee it.

Ingredients:

• 1 roll phyllo dough, thawed
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 3 cups of apples, skinned, diced into bite sized cubes
• 1 tbsp cinnamon powder
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted almonds, crushed
• Additional butter for baking dish

For the Syrup:

• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Butter the bottom, and sides of a 13 x 9 baking dish. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Make the syrup by adding the syrup ingredients to a pot. Bring to a light boil, reduce heat to low and cook, while stirring, for about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat to let cool.

In a mixing bowl, add the apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, salt, and almonds. Give this a good mix.

Lay a sheet of phyllo on the baking sheet. Lightly brush with the melted butter. Add another phyllo sheet on top, and butter that. Do this two more times for four sheets total.

Take 1/2 of the apple mixture and layer it on the phyllo, lightly spreading it out to cover the sheet.

Repeat with the phyllo and butter, four more sheets, then the remaining apple mixture. Cover the top with 6 additional sheets of phyllo, buttering each layer.

Gently press the top of the phyllo to just gently compress. If you want to trim any edges to make things look pretty, go ahead. I don’t. Cut the baklava into diamond shapes, or rectangles, the preference is yours.

Place in the preheated oven and cook for 1 hour or up to 75 minutes. The baklava should be a nice golden brown. Once golden, remove from the oven and immediately pour the syrup over the entire baklava. Ensure that the syrup gets into all of the cut baklava.

Let the baklava cool to room temperature. Just to note, the longer it rests, the better. Dig in. Keep in mind this will be nice and moist with a tad of that flakiness that you love from that phyllo. It’s delicious however you slice it.

This is like apple pie on steroids. It’s everything (and more) you love about baklava, but simply enhanced to make it even more of an excellent sweet treat. Hope you enjoy!