Baklava has a special place among the Turkish desserts. Once you taste it, it is inevitable to want more. There is nothing like a good baklava. Although there are many shops all around Turkey, the ones in Gaziantep, in South East Turkey are the most famous ones. Many countries claim to own the baklava; proofs show that the origins are Middle Asian Turks.
In Gaziantep it is said that a good baklava should appeal to all senses. Is should look good; golden on top and on bottom, clear cut, to equal sized pieces. It should taste good; this is obvious. The touch sense is left to the stomach. You should be able to hear a crispy sound when you pour the syrup on top, when you cut it and when you take the first bite. This is so bad; now just even writing all this, made me want some.
Baklava is so much favored by the Turks it is also prepared at homes, especially during festivities. Elders prepare the pastry themselves. My Granma – may she rest in peace – used to prepare 44 sheets of hand made pastry sheets. Speechless. I am not that clever, I buy ready made baklava sheets, it is so practical, quick and easy to prepare our baklava at home.
These baklava sheets are sold in many markets at the freezer section. The sheets are like vellum paper so they should be covered with a damp, clean kitchen towel at all times, as they get dry very quickly, and start crumbling.
The butter that is to be spread among the sheets should be warm at all times, you may need to warm it up during the spreading. Do not boil too much and cause the butter to change color. Skim the foam and do not use the milky part in the bottom for making the baklava, separate and use elsewhere.
Baklava may be prepared with several different ingredients. You may have walnuts, hazelnuts, nuts or a mixture of these.
We make this baklava in my Turkish Cooking Lessons occasionally, it is always the show stopper.
Hope you will try and enjoy.
Baklava
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 500 grams ready baklava filo sheets
- 250 grams unsalted butter plus extra for greasing
- 350 grams walnuts coarsely grounded
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon optional
- ½ teaspoon cardamon optional
For the Syrup
- 350 grams sugar
- 300 millilitres water
- ½ orange's peel
- 1 teaspoon lemon’s juice
- 3 cloves optional
Instructions
Syrup
- First prepare the syrup as it needs time to cool. Put the sugar and the water in a saucepan and mix so the sugar dissolves.
- Once the sugar melts add the other ingredients; cloves, lemon juice and the orange part of half an orange peel.
- Cook no more than 20 minutes after the water comes to boil.
- Set aside to cool down.
Setting the layers
- Unwrap the filo sheets, however always keep covered as they dry very quickly. Cover with a damp tea-towel. These sheets are like vellum paper. On the packet "baklava sheets" must be written .
- Preheat the oven to 160° Celsius. Grease a rectangular oven tray with butter.
- Melt the remaining butter in a saucepan over low heat. The butter needs to be warm. You may want to re-heat it if necessary. If you notice a white part in the bottom of the melted butter, do not use it for baklava. If bubbles come up, skim and use elsewhere.
- Lay half of the sheets of filo pastry, one at a time, into the tray, brushing each sheet with butter before adding the next. If the pastry is larger than your tray, break/cut to fit.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the chopped walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and cardamon and spread this mixture evenly over the pastry in the tray. You can mix or replace the walnuts with nuts and/or chestnuts.
- Layer up the remaining sheets on top of the walnut mixture, brushing each sheet with butter, as before.
- When all the layers are on the tray, pour on top any butter that is remaining. Set aside to rest for 10 minutes.
- Then, using a sharp knife, cut a diamond pattern into the layers of the pastry.
- Place baklava in the preheated oven for approximately 40 minutes. It should be golden on top and bottom. Remove and rest for 2 minutes.
- The syrup must have cooled by now. Slowly drizzle filtering the syrup into the cuts in the baklava and leave to cool. When filtered discard the cloves and the orange peels.