This special cookbook is more than a collection of recipes; it’s an act of love. When Naomi Neft’s and Cynthia Rothstein’s daughters graduated from college and moved out on their own, the mothers found themselves besieged by frantic phone calls asking for cooking advice: What’s the recipe for their mothers’ famous roast chicken? How long do eggs last in the fridge? What should they do if they oversalted something? What’s a quick and easy dish to impress a date?
From Olympia J. Snowe
U.S. Senator from Maine;
Former Congresswoman from Maine
“This recipe is one of my personal favorites. It is a traditional fam ily recipe that has been passed on through generations. While it can be difficult to prepare, it is very tasty and worth the effort.”
Servings: 24
1 pound (4 sticks) butter, melted
1 1/2 pounds walnuts, chopped
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Grated rind of I orange
One 16-ounce package phyllo dough (strudel leaves)
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 cinnamon stick
3 lemon slices
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Brush some of the butter on the bottom of a 13x9-inch pan.
In a bowl, mix together the chopped nuts, sugar, cinnamon, and orange rind. Set aside.
Place 1 sheet of the phyllo dough in the pan, allowing the ends to extend over the sides. Brush the dough with the melted butter.
Repeat this process with 4 more sheets of phyllo dough, buttering each one. Heavily sprinkle the top sheet with the nut mixture.
Add another layer (4 buttered sheets of phyllo), and sprinkle the top sheet with the nut mixture.
Reserve 4 sheets of the phyllo for the top of the pastry and keep repeating this process (step 6) until the remaining phyllo sheets and nut mixture are used up.
Take the 4 phyllo sheets you have set aside and place them, one at a time, on top of the nut mixture, brushing each one with butter.
Brush the top surface with the remaining butter and trim the edges with a sharp knife. Cut diagonal lines in the top surface, creating a diamond pattern.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F and continue baking for about 40 minutes, or until golden brown.
While the baklava is baking, make a syrup by combining the water, sugar honey, cinnamon stick, and lemon slices and boiling the mixture for 10 minutes.
Once the baklava is done but still hot, cover it with the syrup and let it stand overnight. (It should rest for 24 hours before being removed from the pan.) It can be kept for weeks in the refrigerator or stored for longer periods in the freezer.
