Baklava isn't really all that hard to make in your home kitchen if you use premade phyllo, available in almost every supermarket (in the US, anyway, although I

Baklava isn't really all that hard to make in your home kitchen if you use premade phyllo, available in almost every supermarket (in the US, anyway, although I also saw it in London and Germany). Then you can alter the fats and volatiles as much as you please. The hardest part, in this instance, is finding the precisely correct thawing time for the frozen phyllo. Too little, it is brittle and breaks instantly; too much, and it is sodden. I typically like to make an all-butter version with walnuts and almonds, and a very tangy citrus-forward honey cinnamon syrup, with the citrus halves simmered in the syrup for many hours. Which, TIL, makes my baklava sort-of-Cypriot. I've also made piles of vegan baklava, replacing butter with shortening, for those vegans that don't accept honey as an animal product. I suppose bees aren't really "kept" so much as "employed".