In my previous post on the lovely greek pastry Baklava, I had filled with the mixture of nuts. butter and honey and filled it in sheets of phyllo dough, plastered to each other with melted butter. The end result of course was golden colured baklavas, fragrant from the oven with the whole aroma of fresh nuts and honey. I still had the phyllo sheets and I did not want to waste them. They are extremely delicate and I wanted to try out the hybrid of steamed modhaka filling inside the baklava…This effort of mine did just that…took my experiences to a whole new level…Coconut and Jaggery, isnt that a winning combination???

INGREDIENTS:

6 sheets of phyllo dough

1/4 cup of dessicated coconut.

1/4 cup of jaggery

A pinch of cardamom powder.

2 spoons of melted butter.

PREPARATION:

• In a kadai, add the coconut and jaggery together and stir well. As the jaggery melts, it forms a homogenous mass. This should approximately take around 5-6 minutes.
• Make sure that it doesnt to get too solidified as this would spoil the chewiness of the end product.  Cover and set aside.
• Melt around 2 tsp of butter.  Take the phyllo dough very carefully as they are extremely thin.Use a dry working surface and spread out one sheet of the dough. Slowly brush this sheet with butter and place the second sheet on the face of the first and lightly press it so they stick together.
• Repeat with brushing the melted butter on the second phyllo dough and slowly place the third sheet on the second. Care should be taken while working with phyllo dough as they tear very easily. Continue until all the 6 sheets are pressed and stacked  firmly on one another.
• Alternatively, you could use Pam Butter Spray, to spray on the sheets so that each of the sheet sticks to the one below it.
  

• Cut the sheets in to 16 equal rectangles. Take one rectangle and place a spoon of the coconut jaggery filling, and close it, like you would do a veggie puff. Make sure to seal the edges also with melted butter or butter spray. Make sure that the filling does not creep out as this would burn easily in the oven and the final taste would not be one that you had bargained for.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F and place the filled baklava pastries on to the cookie sheet.

• Bake for 13-15 mins depepnding on the power of the oven until they are a lovely golden colour
• Serve warm with drizzled honey. This would typically make 16 baklavas!!!