Mine is not nearly that gooey, but it usually gets raves. It’s not quite as sweet but has a lot of flavor. I don’t clarify the butter either.
Grind up 4 cups of walnuts in a food processor, mixed with 1/2 C sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves. You don’t want to run the food processor too long or you’ll get a walnut paste. Leave it a little coarse.
Melt two sticks of butter in a small bowl in the microwave.
Butter the insides of the pan.
Only now should you even open the phyllo dough package. Working quickly, put six layers of phyllo in the pan, each one buttered completely with a soft basting brush. Position the layers so that they come up over the sides of the pan.
Spread a cup of the walnut mixture over this.
Cut your remaining phyllo sheets, if necessary, with a very sharp knife, so that the remaining sheets fit IN the pan rather than hanging over the sides. (This isn’t as necessary anymore because often phyllo comes in smaller sheets than it used to.)
Add six more buttered phyllo sheets, another cup of mix, etc. You’ll run out of mix before you run out of phyllo, which is how it should be - you want a lot of them on top.
Save the bowl your butter was in.
Preheat over to 300.
Trim any phyllo that is hanging beyond the edges of the pan. Cut HALFWAY THROUGH in a diamond pattern, and bake for about 1 hour 25 minutes or until top is golden brown.
About 5 minutes before you take the pan out of the over, put 12 ounces of honey and about 1/4 cup lemon juice in the bowl. (Don’t bother trying to stir this yet.) Microwave this for maybe a minute or two until the honey is hot but not boiling. Stir it so that the juice and any remaining butter is all mixed together.
Take pan out of over and spoon all of the honey mixture over this. Allow to soak in a few hours or overnight.
Slice through the rest of the way and serve.