Baklava

Step 1

Bring phyllo dough to room temperature either by thawing frozen dough in the refrigerator for upto a few hours before starting baklava assembly.
Preheat oven to 350° F. Brush the bottom and sides of the pan with butter
Toss chopped nuts with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger powder. Set aside.
Trim the sheets of phyllo(I use scissors) to fit the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.
Set aside phyllo over the sheet it was packed in. Cover it with plastic wrap and a damp, well-wrung kitchen towel. Phyllo dries out and gets brittle very fast. Keep with you only what is needed for the moment.
Grab hold of two sheets of phyllo and lay down and press gently into the pan. Lightly brush the topmost sheet with butter. Repeat this step 4 more times, every 2 sheets buttered, for a total of 8 sheets of phyllo.
Spoon 3 tbsps of nut filling or enough to make a single layer over the top of this 8th sheet.
Place over this four sheets of phyllo, butter in between every two, then nuts. Repeat four sheets, butter between every two, nuts. Do this with until you have used up the nut mixture.
Once you have placed in the last installment of nuts, lay over it a final 8 sheets of dough, buttering between each two. Finish off with a liberal brushing of butter on the topmost layer.
Using a sharp knife cut through the top layers, stopping within half an inch to the bottom of the pan, making 5-6 diagonal rows, lengthwise and then cut across to form 2"-3" individual diamond shaped cuts.
Spritz with a light spray of water to avoid any curling of the dough.
Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until top is golden brown and crisp.
Make syrup by boiling sugar and water. Add honey, clove and stir through. Let simmer, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes.
Take off heat, add vanilla.
Remove baklava from oven. Strain out clove.
Allow to cool.
Carefully pour cooled syrup over hot baklava, waiting for layers to absorb the syrup.
Score through the cuts all the way to the bottom layer.
Wait a few hours for the syrup to absorb and serve once baklava is room temperature.