"Brian Christiansen" > wrote in message
...
> The baklava I made turned out well and I am going to make another batch to
> take to the party I am going to. AB's recipe is a bit fussy, I think, and
> I looked online to see if I could find a slightly less fussy one. The
> reason I tried AB's recipe first is that I have made many recipes from
> "Good Eats," and they have turned out quite well. The one posted here a
> few days ago is probably the least fussy of them all. However, I was
> wondering a few things from perhaps more experienced baklava coks:
>
> AB's recipe calls for letting the layered and baked phyllo dough-nut
> mixture cool completely, at least 2 hours, before putting on the honey
> sauce, but another recipe that I found calls for putting in on while the
> baked mixture is still hot. Which is better, or is it just the preference
> of whoever wrote the recipe, and doesn't really matter.
>
> Every recipe I saw said to cut it before baking. I imagine that is to
> provide channels for the sauce to run through, but if it is for that
> reason, why can that not be done after the baking, but before the sauce is
> ladled on?
>
> Any recipe I found calls for lots of butter, and some specify unsalted
> butter, but AB's recipe specifically calls for clarified butter. Is there
> any advantage in making clarified butter?
>
> Brian Christiansen
I'd always thought that cutting before baking (at least scoring deeply) was
so that when finished, the item (or the top, presentation part) wouldn't
shatter into flakes when cut.
I'd like to know as well.
Janet