Baklava

Baklava or baklawa is a rich, sweet pastry found in many cuisines of the Middle East, South Asia, and the Balkans. It is made of chopped nuts layered with phyllo pastry, sweetened with sugar or honey syrup.

History

The history of baklava, like that of many other foods, is not well documented. Though it has been claimed by many peoples, the best evidence is that, despite its Arabic-seeming name, it is of Turkish origin.

Vryonis (1971) identified the ancient Greek gastris, kopte, kopton, or koptoplakous, mentioned in the Deipnosophistae, as baklava, and calls it a "Byzantine favorite." However, Perry (1994) shows that though gastris contained a filling of nuts and honey, it did not include any dough; instead, it involved a honey and ground sesame mixture similar to modern pasteli or halva .

Perry then assembles evidence to show that layered breads were created by Turks in Central Asia and argues that the "missing link" between the Central Asian folded or layered breads (which did not include nuts) and modern phyllo-based pastries like baklava is the Azerbaijani dish Baki pakhlavası. Further development would have occurred in the kitchens of the Topkapi Palace, where the Janissaries had an annual celebration called Baklava Alayı.

Name

The word baklava entered English from Turkish; it may be derived from Arabic بقلاوة baqlāwaḧ, based on an Arabic word for "nuts," but Buell (in Christian, 1999) argues that the word "baklava" is of Mongolian origin, and mentions a recipe in a Chinese cookbook written in 1330 under the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty.

Baklava is found in many cuisines, with minor phonetic variations on the name:

• Afghan
• Albanian bakllava
• Armenian Template:Hayeren (pʼaḫlava)
• Assyrian
• Azeri
• Bangladeshi
• Bosnian baklava
• Bulgarian баклава (baklava)
• Egyptian بقلاوة (baʼlēwa)
• Georgian tapluna.

• Greek μπακλαβάς (baklavás)
• Hungarian báklafa
• Indian
• Iraqi
• Israeli Template:HbrbbetTemplate:HbrpatahTemplate:HbrqofTemplate:HbrshvaTemplate:HbrlamedTemplate:HbrqamazTemplate:HbrvavTemplate:HbrqamazTemplate:Hbrhe or בקלוה (baqlawa)
• Kurdish
• Lebanese بقلاوة (baʼlēwa)
• Levantine بقلاوة (baʼlēwa)
• Macedonian баклава (baklava)
• Montenegrin baklava

• Pakistani
• Persian باقلوا (baqlavā)
• Palestinian بقلاوة (bak'lawa)
• Polish bakława
• Romanian baclava
• Serbian баклава (baklava)
• Somali baqlawad (baklawad)
• Syrian بقلاوة (baʼlēwa)
• Turkish baklava, Ottoman باقلوا
• Tunisian بقلاوة (baʼlēwa).

Preparation

A piece of baklava

If layering in a baking dish, layer and butter a dozen phyllo pastry sheets, then top with a mixture of ground nuts and a little sugar (and cinnamon, for variation, if desired). Walnuts or pistachios are used most often sometimes with a combination of almonds and pecans. After the nut mixture has been spread evenly across the phyllo, layer and butter the remaining dozen phyllo sheets. Before baking, cut baklava with a sharp knife into diamonds (traditional in Lebanese cuisine) or squares.

If rolling, butter 5 individual sheets of phyllo, then place nut mixture along 1 side of the phyllo and proceed to roll up like a tight log. Once rolled, cut the log on the diagonal into about 12 to 13 pieces. Do not cut all the way through until after the baklava is baked. For easier handling, the logs can be frozen for 10 to 15 minutes to firm them up.

Whether using the pan or rolled technique, the procedure is the same after the baklava is baked. Pour on the syrup (equal parts sugar and water boiled to a syrup consistency and then mixed with either a small amount of lemon juice and rose water (traditional in Lebanese cuisine) or with honey, cinnamon and cloves (traditional in Greek cuisine). As the hot syrup douses the baklava fresh out of the oven, it boils again and thickens by evaporation. It is then ready to cool down until ready to serve, or to refrigerate and serve later.

Trivia

Baklava is frequently talked about in the cartoon show The Angry Beavers. It is a favorite dessert of Daggett, although Norbert doesn't particularly like it. It is referenced most frequently in the episode "Brothers to the End."

See also

• Arab cuisine
• Arab dessert
• Turkish Cuisine
• Turkish dessert
• Cuisine of Greece
• Cuisine of Serbia

References

• Christian, David. Review of The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy (ed. Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David O. Morgan, Brill, 1999), in Journal of World History 12:2:476 (2001), discussing Paul D. Buell, "Mongol Empire and Turkicization: The Evidence of Food and Foodways" in that volume.
• Perry, Charles. "The Taste for Layered Bread among the Nomadic Turks and the Central Asian Origins of Baklava", in A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (ed. Sami Zubaida, Richard Tapper), 1994. ISBN 1-86064-603-4.
• Vryonis, Speros, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor, 1971. Quoted in Perry (1994).

External links

• BAKTAD - Turkish Association of Producers of Baklava and Turkish Desserts (in Turkish)

• Baklava Recipe at TurkishCook.com

• How to Make Baklava at Ehow.com