Daring Bakers' - Baklava

Erica of Erica's Edibles was our host for the Daring Bakers' June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

And so, I made baklava. I have to confess that I was less than excited about this challenge, partially because it seemed like a lot of work and partially because half my kitchen is in boxes.

Most of you know already, but I bought a house!! The Cooking the Books headquarters will be moving into our new official kitchen within the next week or so. In the meantime, I've been crazy busy with paperwork, loans, wire transfers, packing, organizing, and lots of boxes. I think I've found a cat in every box I pick up, so I feel like the boys are excited about the move.

That said, I've put minimal effort into this challenge. I made the baklava, swearing at the Greeks the entire time for coming up with such a difficult dough. I have to say that the dough rolling and stretching was not my forte. I had planned to use my 8 inch square pan, but after attempting a couple sheets I broke down and dug my 6 inch pan out of a box.

For my filling, I used pistachios and hazelnuts with cinnamon, cloves, and sugar. The nut filling was absolutely amazing. I had a lot of filling leftover after switching to the smaller pan and I've been slowly using it up on yogurt, oatmeal, quinoa, and anything else that needs some tasty nutty goodness.

I was disappointed in how tough some of the dough layers were, but I'm sure that was mostly user error on my part. My best guess is that I overworked the dough, but it still a tasty treat.


I would like to try my hand at baklava again sometime. Not anytime soon. But sometime in the future. I want to try the frozen pre-made sheets to compare to the dough I made. I also plan on hitting up the Greek Festival here in Reno over summer to perform a quality control check on the authentic stuff.

In the meantime, I have plenty of packing, cleaning, and sprinkler repair to get busy on. I'm hoping to post more on the house in the near future, but I make no promises!

Guest Post - Cookie Dough Truffles

Today's post is my first of hopefully many guest posts - brought to you by my Quantity Control Expert, Lea! Enjoy!

Ok, so Rachel has been encouraging me to write a blog for quite some time. This Memorial Day weekend I found myself venturing into a culinary endeavor that I was excited to share.

When it comes to the production and consumption of baked goods, I excel at the latter of the two. (Hence my designation as Quantity Control Expert). While my cooking has improved, my confectionary skills leave much to be desired.

My dog loved this recipe. Whether it was due to faulty equipment or my general lack of baking competence, he stood by ready to assist with clean up as the chunks of cookie dough mix exploded all over the kitchen.


I stole this recipe from “The Yummy Life” which appeared on my favorite food porn website (as recommended by Rachel) “Tastespotting.com”. I was looking for a dessert to serve at my Memorial Day BBQ and I had been craving sweets… It must be fate.

The other attractive factor of this recipe was the opportunity to use some of my lifetime supply of flax seed, acquired the last time I attempted to bake. Despite its addition to my oatmeal, yogurt, and smoothies, its volume has remained seemingly undisturbed.

So, I started by “creaming butter and brown sugar in a large bowl.” My impatience did not allow for the butter to be very soft, which was further aggravated by the fact that my hand mixer has three speeds: too fast, out of control, and stuck.

You’re then supposed to add vanilla, which I forgot. This probably would have helped minimize the flour splash that occurred as I slowly added the flour and ground flax seed. The mixture should by dry and crumbly, but mine just appeared to be dry.

Then, I slowly added a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk with the mixer running, followed by the folding in of mini chocolate chips (couldn’t be found, so I used regular size).

At the sight of what appeared to be a cookie dough type substance, I quickly began rolling the dough into balls until it stopped cooperating and the dough started to fall apart and refuse to maintain shape. I then had the brilliant idea of sticking it in the fridge for a while, only to check back at the recipe to realize I should have chilled it for 2 hours prior to forming it into balls. Whatever.

Now the fun part (besides licking the dough off the mixer attachments and my arm). Microwave melting chocolate or chocolate chips and 1 table spoon of canola oil in 20-30 second intervals until it looks like you can dip your balls in it. Roll those suckers around and let chill. Voila. Cookie Dough Balls.

Reviews were mixed, and it generally depended on whether they liked cookie dough in general. Anyone who did, loved them; anyone who was not as big of a fan was hoping for strawberries inside. Overall, a delicious treat but I’ll probably move on to bigger and better things.