Forty Layered Joy; Baklava…
Among the Turkish desserts, Baklava is the king sit on the throne… Only problem is which type of it? With pistachio, walnut or hazelnut?
Invented in Topkapi Palace of Osmanli (Ottoman) Empire, baklava counted as the most prestigious dessert of the Turkish cuisine…
To understand Baklava, first we should speak about yufka… Yufka means very thin layer of dough shaped with rolling pin… There are many variation of yufka depends on purpose but most difficult and artistic one is the Baklava Yufkasi which is the thinnest them all… There is specific rule for baklava yufkasi as when you give them a shape, it have to be so thin that seems like transparent and good baklava should have minimum 40 layers…
Another thing is the variations… Depends on region it is filled with chopped pistachio (in Eastern Anatolia), walnut in central Anatolia or Istanbul or hazelnut in Blacksea…
Last thing is the syrup… In general it is 5 glass sugar 4 glass water and a few drops of lemon for a standard size tray of baklava… Important rule for any dessert with syrup is, one of them should be hot and other should be cold… In general, when we cook baklava, we made syrup beforehand and let it cool down and poor it on hot baklava…
I remember from my childhood that my mom and her friends were getting together to make baklava as this is not for one man job… First you made dough with flavor, milk, oil, egg, lesser than a tea-spoon salt… After making smooth dough, small pieces of dough first get round shape with rolling pin and then handed to skillful ladies to make them thinner with the thinnest rolling pin. Then nuts adding in the middle, and after finish all the layers, another lady cut them and then poor very hot butter on it before put in an oven… In the oven, when it catch the color of gold it is time to remove and after 5 minutes later, cool syrup poor on the baklava with ladle… When you poor cool syrup on hot baklava a great smell spread around the house with the sizzling sound announcing that it taste divine….