How do you make Baklava?

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Heat oven to 350 degrees

To make syrup, combine the cold water with the sugar in a medium sized saucepan. Boil mixture for 5 minutes then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes uncovered. The syrup is ready when it is light yellow color and when a small spoonful of cooled syrup is dropped on a wooden spoon it is tacky and not drippy. Stir in the lemon juice into syrup and set aside to cool.

Grind walnuts in a food processor or blender. Process until medium to finely ground. Set aside.

Coat a 9 by 13 inch baking pan with butter.

Open package of filo dough, unfold the pastry and keep well covered under a towel to prevent the pastry from drying out. Cut the pastry right in half. Layer 1/2 of the pastry in pan. Spread the ground walnuts over the pastry. Proceed layering the remaining pastry sheets on top of the walnuts.
With a sharp knife, cut pastry all the way through, forming diamond or square shape pieces. (Take your time cutting. Pastry is very delicate.)

Melt the 2 sticks of butter slowly, on a low flame. As the butter melts, spoon the foam off the top and discard. When the butter is fully melted and starts to boil, turn the flame off. In a wire mesh strainer, place 1 paper towel. Take the melted butter and pour into the strainer over the baklava. (The paper towel catches any foam that was left over in the butter). Pour the butter evenly over the baklava. (While doing this step, make sure the butter is boiling hot when you pour it into the strainer and over the baklava).

Bake the baklava in the center of the oven for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees. Top should be a light golden brown. Remove the baklava from the oven and let it cool to room temperature.

Pour the lukewarm syrup evenly over the baklava. Sprinkle the baklava with ground pistachio nuts. Serve at room temperature.