Life 'n' Such

Baklava is a mediterranean dessert, hugely popular in Turkey and Greece. The recipe for making baklava is a bit different in both countries.

This is the Turkish way to make baklava (the dough is not made from scratch, we use Fillo Dough sheets). Recently on the occasion on Eid, my friends Ayse Gul and Hacer made it together in front of me.

Ingredients:

Fillo Dough sheets (1 packet)
walnuts (crushed)
butter 2 and half stick and oil, boiled together

for sugar syrup:
3 cups sugar,
3 cups water,
lemon juice 1 tsp

Method:

Keep the sugar and water to boil on medium high.

In the mean time, in a 9*13 inch baking tray (preferably glass) lay one sheet (you may need to fold for it to fit in the tray). Spread couple spoonfuls of boiled butter/oil on it. Sprinkle approx 1 tbsp walnut over the entire surface.
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Follow the same process making layers of the sheet, butter/oil and walnuts, till you reach the last 2 sheets. At this point, just skip the walnuts.

Now pour the remaining butter/oil mix on the entire surface.
Cut the baklava into pieces, first cut straight and then cut diagonally to make diamond shaped pieces.
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Check your sugar syrup, if the sides of the pot have dots on it, then its ready, add the lemon juice and turn off the stove. Let it cool.

Bake the baklava tray at 350 deg F till you get the baklava smell, and the surface and bottom is golden red.

The baklava should be kind of warm (almost like room temperature), and the syrup cold. Pour the syrup over the baklava slowly. Let it soak for atleast 24 hours before eating.

Enjoy!!

In: Dessert, Food, Recipes, Turkish | | #