I used to be able to get these perfect two bite packages of Baklava at my favorite "gourmet" grocery but did not see them as of late, so thought I might try my hand at making them myself. Am I glad I did, and I found the easiest recipe at Allrecipes.com! I used a combination of half toasted pistachios and half toasted pecans. I ran them through a hand nut grinder, then pulsed them all a few times in the food processor with the cinnamon so they were a finer consistency. I baked mine a little too long....45 minutes and they got a tad brown but the taste was spot on. My husband couldn't stay away from them! I have to concur with another baker who said they found the filo easier to handle when the sheets were dried out a little. If you work at a good speed brushing your filo and adding the nuts, the dough will not dry out that much. Also, I think the key to this recipe is using the right size of filo dough, look for something that indicates "fine and silky," the optimum size is #4 Filo.. And to cut triangles, cut three rows down the long side, turn the pan around and cut the bars in half, and then in half again and you should have 12 perfect squares that you can cut into perfect little diamonds. ...To cut diamonds, start at a corner, and cut diagnoally outward until the entire pan has been cut across, then cut down lengthwise a few times, till the diamonds are the size you desire. This was seriously delicious!

Reviewed On: Jul. 27, 2009

The play on salty and sweet just can't be beat. Delicious! I cut my bacon in thirds and that seemed like the right size to wrap the dates in. I did half a batch with regular bacon and half with Morning Star vegetarian bacon. I cut the vegetarian bacon in half and that was the perfect size to wrap the dates in. Don't precook this stuff because it will get too crisp when it cools, and it will be impossible to roll the dates up. Not as tasty IMO as the bacon, but a nice treat for vegetarians who might be missing that smoky salty flavor that comes from bacon. Mine got too black because I followed the directions for the first 20 minutes. Next time I'll do a shorter initial time to bake.

Reviewed On: Jun. 19, 2009

Really good and different kind of pizza option. I made the Quick and Easy Pizza crust from this website for the dough and it was super easy. I also took the advice of another reviewer and buzzed 1/2 can of black beans, the onion, dried spices, cilantro and spinach together in the food processor. I didn't have any salsa but had leftover bottled roasted red pepper and threw that in the food processor as well. Salt to taste. Ooo-la-la, a new topping is created. I added the rest of the black beans to the mixture, adding them unmashed for a little texture. I did brush my crust with olive oil prior to a prebake for about 5 minutes, as suggested by another reviewer. Added the black bean topping, the mix of cheeses. I have a hot oven so at 20 minutes the pizza was ready, but the bottom was still kind of pale. Only after I had made a bit of mess in the oven did I find out from another reviewer that if you bake the pizza on the lower third of your oven will your crust bake and brown before your toppings burn. I can't wait to make this pizza again and try baking it on the lower third of the oven! Thanks for a great recipe idea!

Reviewed On: May 2, 2009