Step-by-step photo recipe: Turkish baklava

Step-by-step photo recipe: Turkish baklava

Control

According to this recipe, Turkish baklava resembles delicious candies soaked in sweet syrup, which leave behind a wonderful nutty aftertaste.

By following our tips and step-by-step advice, you can easily create this masterpiece at home. Let's get started?

Prepare all ingredients.

First you need to boil the sweet syrup.

To do this, mix water, sugar and cook until it boils; when it boils, add lemon juice, then cook for another 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, set aside.

Grind the walnuts using a blender or rolling pin.

Powder is not needed - pieces of nuts should be visible and clearly felt.

Sift salt and baking powder with flour.

Add the egg, milk and half the butter and vinegar to the dry ingredients.

Knead the dough, cover it with film and leave it to rest for half an hour.

Divide the dough into 12 or 24 equal pieces. The number of pieces depends only on your desire; the more pieces, the more layers.

Sprinkle them well with starch and roll them into thin layers.

Coat any layer generously with starch again, fold them one on top and roll out very thin.

Sprinkle the dough with starch so that it does not stick together when rolling out.

Once you get the hang of it, you can roll out all the sheets at once, but for now you can roll out any sheet individually very thinly.

Baklava, Turkish cuisine

Turkish

Sweets recipes → Baklava

Baklava is a recipe for an oriental dessert with nuts made from filo puff pastry.

The “laziness” of this recipe lies in the fact that it takes ready-made dough. Making baklava with nuts cannot be classified as a frisky activity, but you can significantly speed up the process if you don’t start making the dough, but simply replace it with sheets of pita bread.

If you experience baklava at least once, then in the future its name will constantly remind you of the delicious taste and smell of this oriental sweetness. Treat yourself and your loved ones by preparing homemade baklava in the form of rolls - from the thinnest dough, with honey-lemon syrup and nuts.

Recipe for honey baklava - a famous oriental dessert made from puff pastry with nuts and honey.

Turkish baklava is one of the most recognizable and favorite oriental sweets. Turkish baklava consists of no less than 40 thin layers of dough, baked in oil and sprinkled with pistachios.

All rights to materials located on the website www.RussianFood.com are protected in accordance with current legislation. For any use of website materials, a hyperlink to www.RussianFood.com is required.

The website administration is not responsible for the results of the implementation of the given culinary recipes, methods of their preparation, culinary and other tips, the performance of the resources to which hyperlinks are located, and for the content of marketing advertisements. The website administration may not share the views of the creators of articles posted on the website www.RussianFood.com

This website uses cookies to provide you with a better service. By remaining on the website, you agree to the website's policy regarding the processing of individual data. AGREE

Turkish baklava

Baklava occupies an important place not only in Turkish cuisine, but also in Turkish culture. Local residents take this dessert with them everywhere – from visiting relatives’ houses to their workplace in the office. Various events are held under the pretext of trying baklava. So what do we know about baklava, which is so central to Turkish culture? And where can I find out the secrets of her recipe?

Where does the name baklava come from?

In the old Turkish language, the word baklava is translated as bean or bean. But it would be more accurate to translate the name of this dessert as “wrap in a tie.” But some historians see roots in the title that go back to the old Tatar language. Where is the truth? And how important is it to find her now?

Is baklava a Turkish dessert?

Almost all peoples in the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, Balkans and Caucasus - in other words, Turks, Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Bulgarians and Armenians represent baklava as their classic desserts. Considering that these regions were once part of Ottoman geography, it is appropriate to consider baklava an Ottoman dessert. However, this trait is not welcomed these days, especially by the Greeks and Arabs, due to the synonymy of the Ottomans and the Turks. However, on August 8, 2013, the European Commission (Avrupa Birliği Komisyonu) confirmed that baklava is a Turkish dessert .

Is baklava a Greek dessert?

Some Greeks say that the Turks found the recipe for baklava in old Byzantium. Thus, Dr. Speros Vrionis writes that the dessert kopte, widespread in Byzantium, is reminiscent of baklava. Sula Bosis mentions in her book about the culinary culture of the Greeks that kopti is a multi-layer confectionery product based on sesame paste and multi-layer dough. Dr. Speros Vryonis argues that the culinary culture of the nomadic Turks was weak. They drew food from the goods of grazing herds, vegetables, fruits and ordinary bread. They just weren't able to make baklava.

Who made baklava first?

The dough that the Turks bake on a “portable sheet” (instead of an oven) is perfectly understandable even today. The nomadic Turks made puff pastries by placing various fillings between thin sheets of ready-made baked dough (yufka). They used sweeteners such as cream and honey from feral bees, making light desserts from multi-layer dough. This can be seen as the origin of baklava. Charles Perry points to the common dessert, recognizable as Bakı Pahlava in Azerbaijan, as a sign of the gradual evolution of traditional baklava, which is still baked on sheet metal in the steppes of Central Asia. Bakı pahlava is a dessert prepared by placing finely crushed hazelnuts or peanuts between eight layers of yufka. Drawing attention to the fact that Azerbaijan lies on the route of migrants from Central Asia to Anatolia, Perry sees baklava as a product of contact between wandering Turks and settled Iranians in the region. “Baklava is a combination of hazelnuts, pistachio cakes and multi-layer Turkish bread baked according to the Iranian tradition,” it says. Although this is considered an assumption, it seems most suitable for the process of cultural configurations.

Baklava in the Ottoman Empire

Although a clear geographical origin of the Turkish baklava recipe cannot be found now, almost all researchers recognize the traditional recipe and final form of this dessert. The oldest Ottoman recipe for Turkish baklava was found in cooking notebooks in the Topkapi Palace in the town of Istanbul. According to this record, Turkish baklava was baked in the Palace during the month of Saban. Evliya Çelebi, who was a guest at the Bitlis Lupi cottage near Istanbul in the middle of the 17th century, writes about trying Turkish baklava. A message was found in the records about the majestic circumcision wedding of the offspring of Sultan Ahmed III in 1720. It is said that baklava was served to all guests. From such relics it follows that baklava, popular in almost all regions of the Ottoman Empire, was consumed mainly in palaces and mansions, banquets and festivals. Making baklava, as a process of transforming ordinary dough into a culinary product, required the skill of chefs. Cooks who knew how to create baklava were highly valued because they worked with very thin shortcakes (yufka) of dough.

According to Burhan Oguz's book on the cultural origins of the Turkish people, at one point in one of the Istanbul cottages a cook was asked to prepare baklava from 100 layers of yufka. Such an order was not considered something special. Its property was inspected like this. A tray of baklava was brought to the home owner's house before being placed in the oven. Then the gold coin was thrown down from a height of half a meter in order to touch the bottom of the tray. But if gold remained between the layers of dough, the tray of baklava was sent back to the kitchen. This show was usually performed in the presence of guests, and if the owner was in trouble, the cook would be “booed” by the guests.

The development of baklava as a craft, separate from cooking, is also explained by its importance for wealthy customers. Sula Bosis writes that craftsmen, organized in guilds in the 19th century, were called upon to prepare dough (yufka) for baklava for wealthy cottages in Istanbul. According to Reşat Ekrem Koçu's Istanbul Encyclopedia, masters were taught to prepare the dough by comparing its thickness to the petals of forty roses laid out on a tray.

Baklava was considered the dessert of the sultans, a sign of their wealth and pleasure at the table. Baklava at Topkapi Palace became part of the municipal ritual. During the reign of Suleiman the Beautiful, fighters were usually fed stew. After some time, this food became boring. As a courtesy from the Sultan, baklava was distributed to an ordinary fighter once every three months. Until the last days of the Ottoman Empire, baklava was the most popular dessert in palace cuisine. For example, at the last dinner of the Ottoman Sultan Vahdettin (1920) at the Yildiz Palace, baklava was on the menu.

Where to get baklava in Turkey?

If you are observant, you have probably seen that local residents receive baklava “only by weight” in specialized stores. On average, the usual shelf life of this culinary dessert is only 2-3 days. Further, Turkish baklava loses its real taste. Therefore, if you decide to bring Turkish baklava from Turkey to Russia or Ukraine, buy the freshest dessert and ask the merchant to put it in a small box. Of course, you will have to transport it in hand luggage. On market shelves in the resort area of ​​Kemer or Alanya you can find boxes of sweets with a shelf life of one year in sealed packaging. Yes, once it was real baklava, but after opening the box it will be a heavy piece of flour frozen in honey, where the layers can no longer be separated from each other. Remember, apple tea, Turkish delight and baklava packaged in boxes are ersatz products for tourists. The brighter the packaging of such goods, the less likely it is that you will bring a genuine fresh product.

Turkish baklava recipe with pistachios

If you want to make baklava at home, we recommend a traditional Turkish baklava recipe with pistachios. The more times you try to create baklava yourself, the tastier this culinary dessert will turn out. Remember - never store the finished product in the refrigerator. The sling thickens and the baklava becomes harsh to the taste.

Dough ingredients

5 cups water
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup sunflower oil
1 packet baking soda
1 dessert spoon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup pistachios (powdered)

3 cups powdered sugar
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Ingredients for the intermediate layers:

1.5 cups cornstarch
250g butter
3 cups grated walnuts

1. Pour the flour into a deep bowl. Add eggs, milk, sunflower oil, baking soda, vinegar and salt. Mix the dough. Leave the dough at room temperature for 1 hour, covering it with a damp cloth (A collection of different and interacting tissues form organs) .
2. Divide the finished dough into 20 equal pieces and roll out any piece on a marble slab to a similar size (for example, a plate).
Sprinkle cornstarch between each layer and place on top of each other. 3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, then brush the layers of dough.
4. Divide the dough in half (10 pieces each).
Grease the bottom of the baking sheet with melted butter. Place the first piece on a baking sheet. Grease the top layer of the piece with hot oil and moderately sprinkle finely crushed walnuts on it. 5. Coat the second piece of dough with oil on the bottom side and close the walnut.
So, 20 layers with an intermediate layer of nuts have been sorted. 6. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into squares or obliques.
Use an egg brush to spread the remaining melted butter over the baklava. Bake in an oven previously preheated to 180-200 degrees and bake for about 50 minutes until the layers of dough open individually. 7. Prepare the sorbet - mix the sweet powder with water in a deep saucepan and bring to a boil over low heat for 20 minutes.
Add lemon juice to the bubbling syrup and remove from the gas. 8. Remove the hot baklava from the oven and, using a ladle, pour the sweet syrup evenly over the baklava. Sprinkle pistachio powder over the entire surface. We wait a day, storing the product in a dark place at room temperature.

About the creator of the article

Hello, my name is Konstantin Filippovich. I am a traveler, blogger and social media lover. Despite the fact that my homeland is our homeland, I consider Turkey a very close state. I made 20 trips to this country, each time discovering the unexpected. I hope you enjoyed my article. Please subscribe to my account on Instagram, I am always pleased to receive your questions and comments.

Turkish baklava

For the test:

For the inside:

For sweet syrup:

To coat the dough:

To brush baklava before baking:

Baklava is one of the most famous sweets of the East - very sweet, moist, obscenely nutritious, labor-intensive, but DELICIOUS. There are a huge number of recipes for making baklava. I suggest preparing baklava for you the way Turkish housewives often prepare it. Baklava turns out tender, tasty, can be stored for a long time and, what is most unusual, becomes even tastier over time. Try it!

PREPARATION:

Sift the amount of flour required for the recipe into a bowl. Add a pinch of salt and stir. Make a well in the center of the flour mound and add all the watery ingredients of the dough there: warm milk, egg, melted butter. Using a fork, pour flour from the edges of the hole into the center, begin to knead the dough.

You need to ensure that all the flour measured in the bowl is included in the dough and at the same time it comes out quite soft, elastic and not sticky. If you feel that during the kneading process the dough obviously does not have enough water, it comes out dry and cannot absorb all the flour, add warm milk in small portions.

Place the kneaded dough on a board dusted with flour and knead thoroughly for 7-10 minutes until the dough begins to stick to your hands and the board.

Place the kneaded dough in a bag and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes.
For the inside you will need to chop the nuts. It is better to create it in such a way that the nuts retain a certain structure, “bite”, i.e. were crushed finely, but not to a paste. I usually grind the nuts in a meat grinder with a large mesh. Mix the ground nuts with sweet powder and spices.

A few words about the amount of interior.
The amount of nuts given in the recipe is not inflexible. It all depends on your taste preferences and how thin you roll out the dough. I like it when there are a lot of nuts, so it takes me 300, or even more, grams for this amount of dough. Maybe you will need more or less of them. In order not to miss the quantity, you can first prepare the filling from half the norm, and then, as necessary, create more. For sweet syrup, add the required amount of sugar to hot water and, when heating, ensure that the sugar is completely dissolved.
Bring the solution to a boil and simmer on low for about 15 minutes. According to the rules, it is necessary to boil the sweet solution to the state of syrup (it’s like when making jam - so that a drop of syrup does not spill on the saucer), but, in my opinion, baklava comes out tastier if you break this rule and just boil the sweet solution without boiling. I'll explain why. From time to time, the sweet syrup (boiled) after pouring the baklava begins to crystallize, and as a result the baklava comes out prickly. Remove syrup from heat and cool to room temperature. By the time you pour the baklava it should be cool. Divide the rested dough into pieces the size of a ping pong ball. I got 22 pieces from this amount of dough.

Cover the divided dough with a towel to prevent it from drying out. Take one piece and roll it out into a circle as thin as possible. Grease the rolled out dough with very softened, practically melted butter.

Sprinkle the insides over about 3/4 of the dough.

Using a narrow stick (about the size of an ordinary pencil), roll the dough into a roll so that the dough that is not spilled inside is on top.

Gather the folded dough into an accordion shape, remove it from the stick and tuck the ends in.

Roll out in the same way, sprinkle with the inside and roll up all the remaining dough.
A few words along the way. I do not sprinkle the inside of all the rolled dough so that the baklava has the most careful appearance, because if you roll out the dough really thin and sprinkle nuts one hundred percent, the top layers may crack during baking. Naturally, this does not affect the taste, but the appearance will not be the same. And a few more words about oil. The rolled out dough can be brushed with one hundred percent melted butter, or it can be spread with very softened butter. In the first case, the oil consumption will be much less, and the baklava will be the least nutritious. In the 2nd case, even more oil will be needed, the baklava will be the most fatty, but, on the other hand, it will turn out to be the flakiest and, in my opinion, the most delicious. Place the baklava on a baking sheet, brush with egg yolk shaken with a tablespoon of water and place in an oven preheated to 200°C for 10–15 minutes. Reduce the temperature in the oven to 160–170°C, remove the baking sheet, generously brush the baklava with melted butter, return the baking sheet to the oven and bake for approximately 50–60 minutes until completely golden.

Pour cool sweet syrup over the hot baklava and leave at room temperature for 5–6 hours.

You can pour the baklava directly on the baking sheet (if it lies tightly enough) or you can transfer it to another container to achieve the most dense packing.