Baklava Honey Pie #Recipe and #Giveaway from Guest Nancy Parra

Our guest today is Nancy Parra. She'll tell us about her latest book, Death Bee Comes Her, the first in a new series. Nancy will also share a recipe and give away a book to someone who leaves a comment at the end of this post. 

Please welcome Nancy, a good writer, a good cook, and a good friend. 

Take it away, Nancy!

Hi Mystery Lovers, Thank you for letting me visit and share with you my latest book, Death Bee Comes Her. It’s a cozy mystery set on the beautiful coast of Oregon. Wren Johnson, our protagonist, owns “Let It Bee” a shop using honey and honeybee products. She even has a hive in the wall of her store (encased in glass) so people can see the bees at work.

Death Bee Comes Her is the first in a new series and is a Barnes and Noble exclusive this year. You can find it here.

For today’s blog, I’m sharing my Baklava Honey Pie recipe.

Baklava Honey Pie

Ingredients

1 16-ounce package of phyllo dough (you can find it in most freezer sections at your local grocers)
1 pound of real butter (melt ¼ of a pound at a time. You might not use it all, but you can never have too much butter in Baklava.)
1 cup of sugar
½ cup of honey
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
¾ cup of water
4 cups of finely chopped walnuts (you can substitute pistachios or almonds or combine all three.)

1 tablespoon of cinnamon


Step 1: Thaw filo dough (over-night in the refrigerator is best).

Step 2: In a heavy sauce pan, mix together sugar, honey, lemon juice and water. Boil over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Then reduce the heat to med low and boil unstirred for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Step 3: Butter a 9-inch pie pan. Place a sheet of thawed phyllo dough in pie pan gently tapping it along the side to take the shape of the pan. Use a pastry brush, brush on melted butter to completely cover the dough. (Some dough will hang over the edge. We’ll address that later.) Turn the pie pan and place a second sheet of dough so that the points hang over opposite of the first sheet. Tap into pan and brush on butter. Repeat turning the pan and placing the dough and buttering until you have ten sheets. (Tip: cover the remaining dough with a damp tea towel to prevent it from drying out while you are layering)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Step 4: Finely chop the nuts and combine with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. Spread about ¾ cup of nut mixture over phyllo dough. Repeat with five more sheets, turning the pan, buttering each sheet with melted butter. Add ¾ cup of nut mixture. Repeat until you only have ten sheets left. Finish off the top of the pie with 10 layers of buttered sheets. Brush the top with butter.

So it should go like this: 40 sheets of Phyllo
10 buttered, ¾ cup of nut mixture
5 buttered, ¾ cup of nut mixture
5 buttered, ¾ cup of nut mixture
5 buttered, ¾ cup of nut mixture
5 buttered, ¾ cup of nut mixture
10 buttered and butter the top
If your package is less than 40 sheets, still put ten on bottom and ten on top and fewer layers in the middle.

Step 5: Carefully trim off extra phyllo dough hanging over the edge and using a fork press and seal the edge of the pie. Cut pastry into 1 ½ inch wide strips, then cut again diagonally to form traditional diamond shapes. Bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour and 15 min or until golden brown.

Step 6: Remove the pie from oven and immediately spoon the cooled syrup over the hot baklava evenly. Let cool completely uncovered.
Tip: let it sit 4-6 hours or overnight before serving. Store at room temperature, covered with a tea towel. It can keep up to two weeks but that rarely happens at my home.

You can find more honey recipes and tips about bees in the book. The Oregon Honeycomb series is my latest mystery series. I also write as Nancy J Parra and Nell Hampton. Please feel free to visit me online. 

Website: nancyjcoco.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nancyjcoco/.

Giveaway

I’m happy to give away a copy of Death Bee Comes Her to one lucky winner. To enter leave a comment below by February 22nd and list your e-mail address.

Honey and bee products are used for more than just yummy recipes. What is your favorite way to use honey?