Baklava with Chocolate Drizzle

Baklava is an incredible and unique dessert! If you’ve never tried it, you're in for a real treat! A traditional Greek dessert, baklava is a layered pastry made with phyllo dough, chopped nuts, and traditionally soaked in syrup or honey. We added our own flare by drizzling our 85% Dark Chocolate Bar on top for a some added richness to this sweet dessert! This is the perfect way to experience a little bit of international culture while still getting your chocolate fix! Baklava is sweet and crispy, with our dark chocolate adding another rich layer of flavor to this delicious dessert. This recipe is a lot simpler than it looks, we broke all the steps down to make it easy to follow. This is the perfect recipe to make ahead of time for any event or small gathering to share with family and friends, or just to try as a luxurious treat throughout the week!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of honey
• 5 whole cloves
• 18 oz of crushed nuts of your choosing (a good combo is equal parts pistachios, walnuts, and hazelnuts)
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
• Pinch of ground cloves
• 1 lemon
• ½ - 1 cup of melted butter (you probably won’t use all of it!)
• 1 package of phyllo dough
• KakaoZon 85% Dark Chocolate Bar (or your favorite KakaoZon Chocolate!)

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
2. To begin make the honey syrup. In a large pot over medium heat, combine the water and ¾ cup of sugar together until the sugar dissolves
3. Add the honey and whole cloves, occasionally stirring the mixture but allowing it to come to a boil. Once it is boiling, lower the heat and allow it to simmer for 25 minutes. Move on to the nut filling while the honey syrup is simmering
4. For the nut mixture, combine the nuts, ¼ cup of sugar, cinnamon, and ground cloves, in a large bowl. Mix until everything is evenly distributed and set aside
5. Once the honey mixture has simmered for 25 minutes, remove the syrup from heat and allow it to cool until lukewarm.
6. While the syrup is cooling, squeeze the juice from one lemon. Once the mixture is lukewarm, add the lemon juice and remove the whole cloves. Set the mixture aside, allowing it continue cooling
7. Melt the butter in a small microwave safe bowl until it is easy to spread
8. Thinly coat the bottom of a large pan with butter and layer 1 sheet of phyllo on top
9. Lightly coat the phyllo with butter and layer another sheet on top, repeating until you have 5 layers of phyllo, each coated in butter
10. Sprinkle about half of the nut mixture evenly along the pan
11. Add 5 more layers of phyllo, thinly coating each with butter
12. Evenly distribute the rest of the nuts on top and add 5 more layers of phyllo on top, coating each with butter
13. Slice the baklava as desired (you can get a neat diamond shape by slicing it diagonally!)
14. Bake for 35 – 45 minutes or until the top layer becomes golden-brown
15. While the baklava is still hot, pour the cool syrup over the baklava. Allow the dessert to cool for at least 1 hour (preferably longer!)
16. Melt some chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and drizzle it on top as desired for the final touch! Enjoy!