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Undoubtedly, baklava is one of the sweet recipes par excellence in Turkish gastronomy (and other countries in the area), besides being the first Turkish food product to be recognized as a designation of origin by the European Commission. This crunchy and sweet nut-based cake, mainly made with pistachios -but in many areas it is also prepared with walnuts or hazelnuts- is very easy to prepare. If you feel like trying a new recipe at home, here is a step-by-step guide to Turkish Baklava.
Turkish Baklava Recipe
Ingredients:
- 100 g chopped pistachios
- 200 g ghee (a kind of butter to grease the baking pan)
- 1 package of filo dough
- For the syrup:
- 40 g sugar
- 40 g honey
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Preparation:
- Preheat the oven to 180º C. In the meantime, grease a baking dish.
- In a bowl, mix the chopped pistachios with a little less than half of the ghee.
- Next, take 8 sheets of phyllo dough and place them in layers in the greased baking pan, while brushing each sheet with melted ghee.
- Then spread about half of the pistachio mixture over the phyllo dough, and cover again with a layer of dough sheets (again brushing with ghee).
- Repeat by adding the rest of the pistachio mixture on top and cover with the remaining phyllo dough sheets and brushing each sheet with ghee.
- Cut 2.5 cm diamonds in the baklava.
- Bake for 50 minutes (or until golden brown).
- While the baklava is baking, you are going to prepare the syrup.
- Mix the sugar, honey, cinnamon and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Then reduce the heat for 5 more minutes. Let the resulting syrup cool to room temperature.
- When the baklava is baked, let it cool.
- Pour the warm syrup over the baklava and let it stand for about 6-8 hours to absorb the syrup well.
