Simple and delicious Baklava or a Baklava torte

I got my inspiration for this recipe from Giada Delaurentis of food Network, but I've tweaked it a bit to make it a little healthier and more user friendly.

I made this twice.  The first time I made it using the recipe below.  The second time I made it, I made the torte, and it was wonderful!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup almonds 
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• (use a total of 1 cup of any combination of nuts you like or have, I'd stay away from peanuts. The flavor is pretty strong, and will overpower the other ingredients)
• 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots, figs, golden or regular raisons, dates, dried cherries or any other dried fruit you chose
• 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs or oatmeal floured (put oatmeal in food processor and blend till floured)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 package rolled pie crust (like pillsbury)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the almonds, walnuts, apricots, bread crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt in a food processor. Run the machine until the mixture is very finely chopped. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the melted butter and the honey and stir to combine.

Unroll the pie crust and cut with pizza cutter into about 12 equal sized pieces.  Gently press each cut piece of dough onto a cookie sheet. Place 1 tablespoon of the nut mixture into each of the dough pieces. Pinch the ends of each of the dough squares and twist to make a sachet shape. Continue shaping the remaining dough and mixtures onto the second cookie sheet.  Bake until the edges of the dough are golden, about 20 minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove the baklava  and transfer to a serving plate.

I made this as a thanksgiving treat the first time, now I'm making it again in the form of a torte, or pie for you southern folks, and I added some chocolate for good measure!

For the torte make filling as above then line the bottom of a pie plate with the crust.    After that add the filling and drizzle the chocolate over the top.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  

I made two.  One for us, and one for a Christmas Party.  I thought it might be nice to cut the one for the party into squares.

some of the needed ingredients

the nuts, oatmeal, and spices mixed

The melted balsamic chocolate

I used the same recipe for my balsamic chocolate truffles.

 See my recipe for balsamic chocolate truffles here

the finished torte

the finished torte cut into squares for my party