Easy Baklava

Method

1. Bring the water and granulated sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, stir until the sugar dissolves, then add the honey, lemon juice, and vanilla extract and simmer 10 minutes. Set the syrup aside to cool completely while you build the pastry.
2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and brush a 9x13-inch (23-by-33-cm) baking pan with some of the melted butter. Toss the chopped walnuts with the ground cinnamon and ground cloves.
3. Unroll the phyllo dough, trim the sheets to fit the pan, and keep the stack under a damp towel so it does not dry out and shatter. Lay 8 sheets into the pan, brushing each one with melted butter.
4. Scatter a third of the walnut mixture evenly over the phyllo, cover with 4 more buttered sheets, and repeat that nut-and-four-sheet sequence twice more, then finish with 8 buttered sheets, brushing the top generously.
5. Cut all the way through the stack into diamonds with a sharp knife before it goes in the oven; cutting baked baklava only shatters the top into splinters.
6. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, until the surface is evenly deep golden and crisp all the way to the center. Ladle the cooled syrup over the hot baklava immediately, working along the cuts so it soaks down through the layers.
7. Leave the pan uncovered at room temperature at least 4 hours, and ideally overnight, so the syrup distributes and the layers set.