Pistachio baklava with orange-cardamom syrup

This is a recipe from January's Bon appétit. It's absolutely delicious!

makes about 30 pieces....

1 3/4 cups + 8 tblspoons sugar, divided (personally, I cut this amount by half since I don't like sugar...)
1 1/4 cups fresh orange juice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
12 ounces shelled pistachios, toasted (not salted)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
30 14x9-inch sheets fresh phyllo pastry
powedered sugar (optional)

1. simmer 1 3/4 cups sugar and orange juice in saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil until reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 8 minutes. Add cardamom and cool syrup.
2. place nuts and 2 tablespoons of sugar in processor and blend until most nuts are finely ground. Mix the nuts, 6 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
3. preheat oven to 350F. Brush 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish with some melted butter. Place 1 phyllo sheet on bottom of dish and brush lightly with melted butter. Repet 9 more times with phyllo and butter. Sprinkle half of pistachio mixture evenly over phyllo, and add 9 more sheets of phyllo over it, brushing each one of them with melted butter. Add the other half of nuts and then again, 9 phyllo sheets, each one brushed with melted butter.
4. using a sharp knife, cut the baklava, in diamonds or in squares or whatever other shape you fancy....
5. Bake baklava until golden brown and crisp, 50 to 55 min. Make sure you check it often, as ovens are quite different and the phyllo can burn rather quickly. (In my case, it took about 35 min to bake...). Drizzle syrup evenly over baklava and, once cooled, recut the baklava along the lines.
6. Sift powedered sugar, if desired

** You can make the baklava 2 days ahead; store airetight at room temperature. (Personally, i also freeze it, and it works...)