This recipe was super easy and made the smallest mess out of any other dessert that I've baked. I've never worked with phyllo dough before, but from watching my mom make so much spanikopita in my days, I knew it was going to be some sort of challenge. The most important thing to remember is DON'T LET THE PHYLLO DRY OUT!! whatever you do...just don't or you will be wasting lots of good dough. It was already challenging when I pulled the dough out of the package because it was kind of broken up into thinner, shorter pieces. But keeping the dough under a damp towel really makes life easier when working with this thinner-than-paper ingredient.
The original recipe made 18 servings, but I cut it in half, made 9, and it fit perfectly in my square cake pan. The dough that I once thought was messed up, ended up fitting very nicely into the pan without cutting it. Layer by layer I went...butter by butter...I'm not sure that made sense but literally...layer, butter, layer, butter, layer, butter...oh there's some pecans/cinnamon/clove mixture...layer, butter, layer, butter...on and on and on until voillaaaa it was ready to go in the oven!
At this point, while it was in the oven for 50 minutes, I decided to dye my hair! Not reading the recipe thoroughly, I wasn't aware that I was supposed to make the sauce WHILE the pastries were baking. Next thing I knew, there was only 5 minutes left on the timer and I still hadn't begun making the glaze! I threw together the sugar, water, honey, and vanilla...threw it on the stove...(well, I was following the directions still!) and let it simmer for 20 minutes. It said that I needed to pour the sauce over the pastries right away, but I simply placed a towel over the pan, waited for the sauce to simmer and it turned out JUST fine!
Keep in mind, this recipe didn't call for cloves, but I threw some in the cinnamon and pecan mix and it made it so tasty. I also used pecans instead of walnuts in this recipe. I realize now that I should have let the sauce seep into the pastries a little longer before trying a piece, but I couldn't resist! At this moment, they are covered with saran wrap so that they can get a little gooey-er (yes, that's a word in my book). I can't wait to try another piece tomorrow!!!
Another smile on my face from a job well done. Come back for some cinnamon sugar biscotti with Alivia's special twist next Sunday!
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