Raspberry Peach Baklava

Yesterday in 98 degree temperatures and windy - at times, windy, was an understatement, Andrew and I competed in the West Haven Days Dutch Oven Cook-off. For weeks we have been battling over what to cook at this competition  I wanted him to make something creamy with fruit, then I got and e-mail - (you know one of those that you unintentionally signed up for and then they come up with a great idea...) www.justapinch.com came to the rescue. They sent a recipe link for buttery Baklava, I forwarded it to Andrew and asked what he thought about trying this. Neither of us have worked with Phyllo dough so we figured we probably ought to try this one before competing with it. He stopped on his way home last Tuesday and picked up the ingredients, and after dinner he set out to make Baklava. What came out of the oven, was amazing!!

 So from this recipe we changed it up to add some additional flavors. We went to the Internet and searched different types of Baklava and found you can add fruit to it as long as it doesn't add too much moisture. So that got me thinking dried fruits - what I wanted to use was the oodles of Raspberries that are exploding on the side of my house, and Andrew has been on a bit of a Peach kick so we thought lets put the two together. The flavors were awesome together. Baklava is a traditionally winter / Christmas time dessert, nutty and cinnamonny, the peaches and raspberries put a nice summer touch on it.

Now as for the cook-off.... picture tissue paper thin pastry, wind, and trying to keep it moist, this was a battle... we ended up tossing out some of the Phyllo because it dried out beyond use, but we brought more that enough to replace it.

Sorry this is not the best picture....

Peach and Raspberry Baklava

20 -30 sheets of Phyllo dough

1/2 cup raspberry syrup

6 oz. Dried peaches diced

1 tablespoon Spiced Rum, Brandy or Apple juice

1 cup melted butter

2 cup chopped walnuts

2 tablespoons Bread crumbs (as needed)

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Syrup

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Zest of one lemon

Toast and roughly chop the walnuts then mix in the brown sugar and cinnamon.  Set aside.  Dice the peaches sprinkle with Liquor or Juice. Set aside.  Melt the butter.  Set aside.

Butter the bottom of an oval Dutch Oven with a brush.  Cut Phyllo to the size of your oven. Lay the first sheet of Phyllo dough.  Butter the top of that sheet then add another layer until you have a stack of 5.  Each layer must be buttered.  Add some of the walnut mixture and peaches then a drizzle of raspberry sauce.  Add and butter 5 layers of Phyllo on top of that then all the toppings again. Add another 5 layers. Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan, then bake@ 350° for about 40 to 50 minutes.

While baking, you can make the syrup.  Put everything in a 5” inch Dutch Oven and boil for about 5 minutes.  Set aside to cool.  Pour over the baklava immediately after baking.  Let it cool.  

Have fun cookin'

Cyndi