Base:
Fillo dough (pastry leaves)
1 1/4 c Butter/margarine
1/4 c Sugar
1 ts Ground cinnamon; up to 2 ts
4 c Almonds, slivered and chopped
Cloves, NOT ground
Syrup:
4 c Sugar
3 c Water
1/2 c Honey
1 Cinnamon stick
5 Cloves, NOT ground; up to 6
Mix sugar, cinnamon, sugar, and almonds.
Lay the fillo dough out on a table. Fillo dough will dry quickly, so
you'll need to work fast, so what spills out of the pan doesn't dry
(although it will anyway), and keep a damp towel on the rest of it
(that you had laid on the table) so it doesn't dry.
On a medium-sized, buttered pan (you'll need to melt the butter) lay
one of the sheets of dough. Butter it, and lay another on top of
that. Continue until you have 5-6 sheets of dough on the bottom of
the pan. Then lay another sheet, and do NOT butter it. On that, put
some of the almond mix, enough to cover it evenly, but not making a
thick layer. On that, lay another sheet of dough, butter it, and then
another, unbuttered. On that place some almond mix again. Repeat
until all the mix is gone, or you have only 4-5 sheets of dough left.
Fold in the dough that hangs from the side of the pan. Some of sthem
will be dry, so just cut them and discard them. Make sure to butter
all of them (except, of course, if they have almonds on them). Lay
down some more sheets of dough, buttering every one, and cutting off
the edges, that hang from the sides of the pan. here, I've found it
easier if you just lay the dough down, width of dough to length of
pan. That is to say, the width of the dough is sometimes about the
same size as the length of the pan, and the length of the dough about
twice the widht of the pan, so lay the short side of the dough down
along the length of the pan, so that some (about half) of it will
hang out the end. Then butter it, and fold what hangs back in the
pan, buttering that. This way you get it to look better, and stick
better.
When you're done with laying the sheets of dough down, make sure you
butter the first one VERY well, and sprinkle some water on it before
you put it in the oven. Also, with a sharp, pointy knife, cut the
top few sheets of dough, not getting all the way through, just sort
of "scratching" the top layer and marking the pieces, in
rhombus-shaped pieces. I find it easier to cut along lengthwise, and
then sideways, from corner to corner, and lines paralel to that.
