Moving on to our next hands-on activity for our newest unit study which is Ancient Greece, we decided to look for something “delicious” to do.
We also have the book, TOOLS OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS: A Kid’s Guide to the History & Science of Life in Ancient Greece (Build It Yourself), which is fantastic for hands-on ideas.
Tiny was reading about what the Greeks snacked on and some of the foods are still with us today.
Learning that the Ancient Greeks rolled out pastry real thin and made Spanakopita (spinach pie) or Baklava, we decided to try out a new recipe.
Deciding that Baklava sounded better to make because it would give us a sugar high, we opted to make it.
Baklava is a dessert made with phyllo, walnuts and honey.
I will warn you though that if you are a foodie blogger you might cringe at our substitutions and make do ingredients.
Living here in Ecuador some ingredients like phyllo dough are not even obtainable.
I read in one place on the internet when we were looking for a simple recipe that you shouldn’t even make it if you don’t have phyllo pasty dough. I am sure I am doing some awful foodie injustice.
Good thing I am not a foodie blogger because I would be fired from the hall of foodie fame deliciousness because we did substitute and make do with what we had.
Did I mention it came out super good and we had a ton of fun in the process?
Check out the ingredient list:
■phyllo pastry dough OR make it like we did. I used this easy recipe from Living in the Pie Life
■I had about 2 cups of walnuts at the house, but we could have easily used more.■About a teaspoon of cinnamon.
■We had some local honey – a small jar.
■Couple of sticks of butter melted.
■3/4 cup of sugar.
■vanilla extract to taste.
We made a well for our dough and added in all the ingredients.
We were so focused on getting this dough “right” that we forgot a few pictures.
But it came out perfect for us. We allowed the dough to “rest” and while it rested, we crushed the walnuts in a ziploc bag.
Then Tiny mixed the cinnamon in with the walnuts in a bowl and set it aside.
We also melted butter in a bowl and set it aside.
Our dough was less than perfect, but Tiny was pleased with it and so he started rolling it out.
We buttered every layer and that gave it tons of that light feeling and sweet layers. Butter fixes everything.
So he rolled out one piece of the dough and brushed with butter. Then he spread some of the walnut and cinnamon mixture on top.
He did that for a couple of layers. After that I cut through and made the diagonal slits.
While it was baking, we warmed some local organic honey and vanilla in a sauce pot.
After our baklava was baked, we let it cool down just a minute.
Then Tiny spooned the delicious honey sauce over the baklava and allowed the sauce to soak through.
Tiny shocked himself because our make do baklava was absolutely delicious with crusty and sweet layers.
It was a fun way to read some about what the Ancient Greeks ate and try a dessert too.
Hugs and love ya,
