I find that the people who live in the countries bordering the Mediterranean created a lot of my favorite foods. Most of these, including hummus, pita and yogurt, are super-easy to make and incredibly delicious. A few, like tiramisu, are a bit more intense, but still can be successfully attempted by a novice. Baklava, on the other hand, was something that I was really leery about making. It looked genuinely hard.

For those who are unfamiliar with the dessert, baklava is a dessert consisting of light, flaky layered phyllo dough (the wrapping for spanakopita, among other things) and ground nuts baked until deliciously golden and crispy, and then doused in a sweet syrup. Among desserts, it sticks out as one of the messiest: with so many flakes, finely ground filling and sticky honey, it is nearly impossible to eat without committing to a few minutes at the sink. But baklava is totally worth it when properly made — rich and sweet, with so many amazing textures and flavors layered into one triangle — the experience of eating it borders on transcendent.

So I’ve decided to make it. This was going to be fun. But not easy.

There are a lot of places for baklava to go wrong. To start with, the phyllo dough is fiddly and tricky to work with — it is extremely thin and has a tendency to tear when too wet and crack when too dry, and falls apart at a distressingly large range of humidities. The proper way to assemble it is one sheet at a time, brushing each layer with melted butter in between; getting frustrated and stacking several at a time results in dense, soft dough instead of light and crackly dough. You can skimp and use cheap ingredients, which just makes for a waste of your time — trust me. This is the time to break out the good cinnamon, the Finger Lakes honey and the hazelnuts.

Oh, and one more thing: my recipe calls for rose water and orange blossom water, which are made via some magical distillation process about which I am very uncertain. These are hard to find (I located both at Ludgate Farms, but not at Wegman's. Greenstar may have them) and not totally necessary, per se, but if you can get your hands on some, they will make your baklava better. If you can’t, don’t fret. I tried the recipe without them, and it was still much better than the sad piece of baklava that I got in a dining hall on West Campus.

I got my recipe from the New York Times, and they got it from a bakery in Paris, and since Parisians tend to be pretty discerning about food, I will assume that it is a good recipe. Having tried it out on a crowd of discerning Cornell students and received a chorus of moans (not bedroom sounds), I can base this assumption on at least some data. Since the recipe itself is quite long and convoluted, you will have to make a couple of clicks and check it out on the cornellsun.com website.

This requires planning. You’ll want to get your ingredients together the day before you make the baklava. The frozen phyllo needs to be set in the refrigerator overnight to thaw. Assembling the pastry takes some time. After it bakes, you are supposed to let it cool at room temperature for several hours, though I find that partially cooling it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or so works just as fine.

Yes, this desert is like a relationship. It requires some commitment. It requires cooking syrup. It requires slopping three quarters of a pound of butter between the layers of a pound of dough. If you’re into that sort of thing, give this a try and you will be transportedly pleased. If not, just make some ginger chews. Or talk your more culinarily adventurous friends into making a pan and then mooch some. Oh, and have some napkins on hand.

Recipe: Hazelnut Baklava — adapted from the New York Times, 3/29/2006

NUT FILLING:

10 oz. skinned hazelnuts

One-eighth tsp. salt

PASTRY:

1.5 cups melted butter

1 one-pound package frozen phyllo dough, defrosted

HONEY SYRUP:

1 cup sugar

One-eighth tsp. salt

1. In a food processor, grind hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt until fine. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. On a table, unwrap and unfold the phyllo. With a sharp knife, slice the stack of dough in half crosswise, forming two rectangles. Cover entirely with a damp dishcloth.

3. With a pastry brush, generously brush bottom of a 9-by-12-inch baking pan with butter. Carefully place one phyllo sheet in pan and brush with butter. Repeat with six more phyllo sheets, brushing each sheet with butter. Cover up the phyllo so it doesn’t dry out. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the nut and sugar mixture evenly over top layer. Repeat layering process with phyllo, continuing to brush each sheet with butter, until you have stacked on six more sheets. Sprinkle another one-third of nut and sugar mixture evenly over top layer. Repeat layering process with phyllo and melted butter, using another six phyllo sheets. Sprinkle final third of nut and sugar mixture over phyllo. Cover with the rest of the phyllo as before, leaving top layer unbuttered.

4. Placing your palms in center of the top layer, gently press and flatten the pastry. Brush an additional quarter cup melted butter evenly over top layer. Really slather it on.

5. Using a sharp pointed knife, carefully slice baklava into 2-inch-thick diagonal strips. Repeat in both opposite directions, forming a triangle pattern. Transfer baklava to oven and bake until golden and flaky, 50 to 60 minutes, rotating pan as necessary to ensure even baking.

6. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine honey syrup ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, and cook until sugar has completely dissolved, about five minutes. Transfer syrup to a bowl and refrigerate, stirring occasionally, until the pastry comes out of the oven. Once the syrup has cooled, pick out the cloves and cinnamon sticks with a fork, chopsticks or your clean fingers.

7. While baklava is still very hot, pour cooled syrup into cracks between triangle-shaped pieces, reserving about three tablespoons syrup. Drizzle reserved syrup evenly over top of baklava. If you have time, let cool on a wire rack for two hours, then cover with foil and let sit at least 4 hours or overnight before serving. If not, just cover it with foil and put it in the refrigerator for a half an hour or so, but not any longer.

Yield: About 30 or 40 pieces, give or take.RLD