Apple Cinnamon Baklava

Butter the bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 baking dish. Preheat oven to 325ºF.

Add syrup ingredients to a pot. Bring to a light boil, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring, for about 3–4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a mixing bowl, add apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, salt, and almonds. Give this a good mix.

Lay a sheet of phyllo on the baking sheet. Lightly brush with melted butter. Add another phyllo sheet on top, and butter that. Do this two more times for 4 sheets total.

Take half of the apple mixture and layer it on the phyllo, lightly spreading it out to cover the sheet.

Repeat with phyllo and butter, 4 more sheets, then remaining apple mixture. Cover the top with 6 additional sheets of phyllo, buttering each layer.

Gently press the top of the phyllo to just gently compress. If you want to trim any edges to make things look pretty, go ahead (I don’t). Cut baklava into diamond shapes or rectangles.

Place in preheated oven and cook for 1 hour or up to 75 minutes. The baklava should be a nice golden brown. Once golden, remove from oven and immediately pour syrup over entire baklava. Ensure that the syrup gets into all of the cut baklava.

Let baklava cool to room temperature. Just to note, the longer it rests, the better. Dig in.