his birthday baklava

We celebrated our oldest son turning nineteen last month. He chose homemade pizza for dinner (we had 5 guests…) and wanted baklava for dessert.The pizza was special, because we haven’t made that in forever – since I embarked on this gluten-freeness that is no fun for family celebrations!

The baklava was my labor of love, as anyone who has ever made it will attest!I bought my dough at a local grocery. We decided to make it a chocolate almond baklava.I used coconut oil instead of butter between the layers of pastry.I also added finely shredded unsweetened coconut to the filling mixture.The almonds were toasted then slightly chopped before their addition to the mixing bowl. I didn’t use much sugar in the filling because of how sweet the syrup will make it when it’s done. I sprinkled a portion of the filling every 3rd or 4th layer.Look at the precision on those diamond cuts!  GAH!Filling turned out a bit “fudgy” – yum!