Janet Bostwick wrote:
> "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

You have to cut it before baking. Doing it afterward would
result in the top layers breaking up as you speculated.

Kate

--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?