Today I will present to you a very popular dessert from middle east, one of the most ancient dessert, it is Turkish baklava. This delicious sweet originated long long time ago in middle east, some historians claim it first originated in ancient- Assyria 800 B.C. but it was influenced by every civilization in middle east like Arabs, Balkans, Caucasia, and Turks and the common method is layering unleavened flat bread with chopped nuts in between and soaking it in honey and then baking it
How to Make Baklava
Prepare The Syrup:
- Combine the sugar with water and honey
- Add lemon and cinnamon stick in the pan.
- Boil the mixture at first then lower the heat to keep the mixture boiling at minimum heat for another 15 minutes.
- Remove the pan from heat and let cool.
Prepare The Baklava
- Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4.
- Combine the nuts and ground cinnamon with 3 table spoon of sugar.
- Brush the baking tin using melted butter or oil.
- Then lay a sheet in the bottom of the tin and brush it with another layer of butter.
- Repeat the pervious step with three more sheets and don’t forget to brush between each layer with butter.
- After the third layer sprinkle four tablespoons of nut and cinnamon mixture evenly over the baklava.
- Cover the mixture of nut and sugar nut with another 2 pastry sheet and butter brush between each one the same way we did before.
- The sprinkle another four tablespoons nut and cinnamon mixture and cover them with two buttered sheets,
- Repeat the last three steps and continue sprinkling and covering until all but 4 sheets.
- Now we will use the remaining four sheets as a top layer because if the top is not well covered the baklava will be very soft at the top and not consistent when we cut it, so you have to cover with four or more sheets and again butter between each layer
- When we come to the last sheet we will tuck it in the loose edges around the sides between the pastry and the tin just to keep the pastry tight and in a good shape.
- We can spread some melted butter over the top.
- Use a sharp knife to cut the pastry in diamond-shaped slices.
Baking The Baklava
- Bake the baklava in the oven for 50 minutes.
- Then remove from the oven and pour the syrup we prepared before. The syrup should be poured immediately or the baklava will be lacking the special taste of it.
- It is recommended to add the syrup over three or four times and wait between each time to allow the syrup to go down the pastry
Serving
- Baklava served cool and it can be served with juice.
- From the enormous times I over made Baklava I learned I always have left over of the nut mixture so I keep that mixture in a sealed bag to add it to the next time and you also will need that mixture because you will make baklava many times to come I know it by experience.