Chocolate Caramel Baklava

Preheat oven to 350F.

Melt all the butter (but reserve 1 tablespoon) and paint a 9×13 pan using a pastry brush with the melted butter. Place one sheet of phyllo in the pan, paint with butter, and repeat stacking the layers of phyllo and brushing with butter to make 10 layers, staggering the sheets so you leave a little overhang (to make edges to fold in). Spread half of the chocolate chips and all the pecans over the stack of 10 sheets of phyllo, then fold in the edges. Layer 10 more sheets of phyllo (don’t stagger these), coating with butter between as before. Cut into triangles before baking (squares cut on the diagonal). Bake until brown.

As it is cooking, put the water, brown sugar, and remaining 1 Tablespoon of butter in a small pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the baklava is done. You still want it to be thin, so don’t try to boil it down too much. When you remove the baklava from the oven, pour the syrup over the top.

Let it cool. While it’s cooling, melt the remaining chocolate chips (I use the microwave and a glass bowl, doing only 10 seconds at a time and stirring often until they are just melted), then put in a bag with a TINY corner cut off. Draw crisscross lines over the whole dessert. Do this whole thing before dinner, because it is torture to wait for it to cool before you can chow down!

Note: this is a messy dessert. The filling will try to fall out and your hands will be sticky. If you want a “cleaner” version, you could roll it as individual triangle shaped servings with the syrup inside (you cut the phyllo in three long strips, then fold it back and forth like a paper football) instead of cooking it as a pan, although the syrup would need to be much thicker (read: simmered longer). However, I personally feel the messiness adds to the pleasure of eating it!