Mashmoom

Ingredients:

Baklava Layers

(40) 9 x 14-inch Sheets of Filo Dough

3/4 Cup Butter, melted

1/3 lb Crushed Almonds

1/3 lb Crushed Walnuts

3/4 Cup Sugar

1 and 3/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon Cloves

Honey Cinnamon Syrup

1 and 1/3 Cups Granulated Sugar

1 Cup Water

1/3 Cup Honey

1 Tablespoon Plus 1 and 1/2 Teaspoons Lemon Juice

1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon or 1 Cinnamon Stick

First, make the honey cinnamon syrup. Bring the sugar, water, and cinnamon to a boil in a small pot. Add the lemon and the honey, stir well, and lower the heat to a simmer. Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate.
In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the nuts, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves until well blended. Set aside. Cut (3) 8-inch circles out of the parchment paper and place them in the bottom of each of the well-greased cake pans. Then remove the filo from the package and lay flat. Fold the entire stack in half so that it now measures 9 x 7 inches. Using a small sharp knife, cut a 7-inch diameter circle out of the stack of filo. Cover the circular filo sheets and the leftover cuttings with the towel. This will help keep the filo dough from drying out while you're working.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Take a circular sheet of filo, place it in the bottom of a cake pan, and lightly brush it with the melted butter. Repeat this process 8 times so you have 8 buttered sheets of filo dough in the bottom of the pan. Take 1/3 cup of the nut mixture and evenly distribute it over the filo in the cake pan. Repeat the layering and nut sprinkling process 3 more times, and then add 8 more buttered filo sheets over the last layer of the nut mixture. You should have used 40 sheets of filo dough. Take the small sharp knife and cut small slices into the top of the filo, going down several layers but not all the way to the bottom of the pan, and not all the way from the center to the edge. you just want a line about 3-4 inches long to help the baklava absorb the syrup later, and also to make the cake easier to cut when serving. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator. Repeat this process with the second cake pan.

Lightly brush the leftover cuttings of the filo dough with butter and place them in the bottom of the third cake pan until they have covered the bottom, then sprinkle half of the remaining nut mixture over them. Continue brushing the cuttings until they're all buttered, tossing these buttered cuttings into the bowl with the nut mixture as you butter them. Toss them with the remaining nut mixture and then empty them onto the third cake pan, pressing down just a bit to help everything stick together.

Remove the other two cake pans from the refrigerator, uncover them, and now place all three cake pans in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until the filo dough puffs up significantly (doubles to triples in height) and turns golden brown. Remove from the oven and pour all the honey syrup over the pans, (pouring just a tad bit more into the two pans with the circular sheets of filo). Allow them to sit in their pans, cooling and soaking up the syrup, for at least an hour and a half.
For the layering part, I really recommend just using your hands to lift and move the filo cakes rather than a spatula because filo is brittle and you'll have a better grip on it if you just hold it yourself. (Warning, your hands will get sticky.) If you used a springform cake pan, remove the sides and layer the two circular filo cakes on top of each other on your serving plate, lining up the slice marks on top and making sure that you remove the sheet of parchment paper underneath. Now place the filo cake with the cuttings on top, again making sure to remove the parchment paper. If you used regular cake pans, just reach down into the pan and push your fingers underneath the layer of parchment paper and lift up the filo cake (thumbs on top, remaining fingers supporting underneath) and follow the same layering process outlined above. Congratulations, you made a tricky but wonderful baklava cake! Now eat and enjoy it.
via : www.adventures-in-cooking.com