Before we get into how to make baklava, it should be clarified what baklava is. This dessert is made from thin layers of dough called “yufka”, similar to phyllo, which are layered on top of each other. You can use different fillings, but the most common is crushed pistachios. Drizzled with melted butter, the dish is then baked and topped with syrup. This is probably the simplest and most well-known baklava variant, but there are also many others with other fillings, e.g. B. with walnuts, hazelnuts or a combination of nuts. You can cut baklava into different shapes and sizes and even roll it. Some versions can be prepared with a cream filling and also with milk. We present the traditional baklava recipe for you here and we hope you will enjoy the delicious dessert!
The origins of the dessert
The complex baklava recipe we know today was developed in the kitchens of Topkapı Palace and baked after the conquest of Constantinople. While kitchen books with the recipe are dated to 1473, the origins lieDessertsmuch further back. One of the earliest mentions of a dessert similar to baklava comes from the Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BC. The dessert was described as “a layering of unleavened flatbread with chopped nuts and honey.”
The first Turks to come to Anatolia were nomads, so baking bread in a stationary oven was simply not possible. In the 11th century it is recorded in writing that they discovered that the best way to bake the dough was to roll or stretch it as thinly as possible and cook it over a fire. A precursor that exists as a link to the first Turks in Anatolia is “baki pakhlavası” or baku baklava, which was made from eight sheets of dough with nuts between each layer.
Baklava recipe: ingredients
For the dough:
90 ml Butter
2 x 270g pack of phyllo dough
For the filling:
500 g pistachios, walnuts and hazelnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon
For the syrup:
850g sugar
50 g Honey
1.5 liters of water
A few drops of lemon juice
Preparation: step-by-step instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
- Prepare the honey syrup. Place sugar and water in a saucepan and heat on the stove, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Add honey and a few whole cloves (cloves are optional here); stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 25 minutes. Remove the syrup from the heat. Add lemon juice. Remove the whole cloves and allow the syrup to cool completely.
- Prepare the nut mixture. pistachios,Walnuts and hazelnutsplace in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade. Pulse a few times to chop. Place in a large mixing bowl and add sugar and cinnamon. Mix well.
- Prepare the phyllo dough. Carefully roll out the thawed phyllo dough and place the sheets between two clean kitchen towels. This prevents the puff pastry from breaking while you work.
- Assemble the first few layers of baklava. Prepare a 25 x 35 x 5 cm baking pan. Brush the inside of the baking pan with some melted butter. To assemble the baklava, take a sheet of phyllo and place it in the pan. With this size mold, you usually fold the phyllo sheet in half and it will fit perfectly. (You can also trim it a bit with kitchen scissors). Brush the top of the phyllo sheet with the melted butter. Repeat this process a few more times until you have used about 1/3 of the phyllo dough, brushing each layer with the melted butter.
- Now spread about 1/2 of the nut mixture evenly over the top layer of phyllo.
- Continue assembling the baklava, using one sheet of phyllo dough with another 1/3 of the phyllo dough at a time. Here too, brush each layer with a little melted butter.
- Spread the remaining 1/2 of the nut mixture evenly over the top layer of phyllo.
- Process the remaining 1/3 of the phyllo dough in the same way, placing one folded sheet on top of each and brushing each layer with melted butter.
- Brush the top sheet with butter.
- Then, using a good, sharp knife, cut the dough into diamond-shaped pieces (between 24 and 36 pieces) about half a centimeter deep.
- Bake: Place the baklava pan on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until the top of the baklava is golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean
- As soon as you take the baklava out of the oven, pour itcooled syrupover the hot baklava. Make sure you distribute the syrup evenly.
- Let the baklava cool completely (preferably several hours, but at least 1 hour so that the flaky phyllo layers can fully absorb the honey syrup).
- Cut the previously marked pieces and, if you wish, garnish with a few pistachios before serving.
