Baklava is also called baklava. This word is translated from Turkish as "nuts". Baklava is one of the most popular pastries made from puff pastry. It is made with nuts filling and soaked in syrup or honey. This sweetness belongs mainly to Turkish cuisine. But among other eastern peoples, it is no less popular. Azerbaijanis, Iranians, Turkmens and Uzbeks are preparing baklava for the spring holiday of Novruz. Arabs, Tatars, Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks love her very much.
The classic baklava recipe is familiar to the Turkish, perhaps, every more or less experienced housewife. And, for sure, everyone at least once tried to cook this famous sweet at home. In eastern families, cooking baklava is a real art that has been passed down from generation to generation. Baklava consists of layers of dough, which are smeared with oil, folded into rolls or laid out in layers on a baking sheet. The layers of the finest dough, called yufka, should be made so that through them you can easily read the newspaper. A true Turkish baklava recipe suggests that there will be forty such layers. Therefore, rolling out such a dough is a very difficult task, which only true culinary masters can handle.
The filling is made from finely chopped or chopped pistachios, walnuts , peanuts. It is spread between layers of dough, which are pre-baked and densely soaked in syrup with lemon juice, spices and rose water. Therefore, such a sweetness turns out to be very tender, sweet, moist and incredibly high-calorie. Turkish baklava recipe involves a lot of time for cooking, but believe me, it's worth it. Turkish sweets can be stored for a very long time, and over time it only gets tastier.
So, we cook baklava according to the classic recipe of Turkish housewives.
For the test you will need: 500 g of flour, 1 egg, 1 cup of milk, a pinch of salt, 50 grams of butter;
For the filling: 300 g of any nuts (you can mix), 300 g of powdered sugar, half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, a pinch of ground clove;
For sugar syrup: lemon juice (to taste), water and sugar in a ratio of 1: 1;
For spreading dough: 200 grams of heavily softened butter or ghee.
Method of preparation: Sift flour into a bowl, add salt and mix thoroughly. Add all the liquid components to the flour and knead the dough not too steep. As a result, the dough should be elastic and not sticky, but at the same time soft. If it comes out too steep and cannot absorb the whole norm of flour, it is allowed to add a little milk. The kneaded dough must be kneaded for 10 minutes so that it does not stick to hands and tools. The finished test requires 30 minutes to rest. In the meantime, you can cook the filling. Rinse nuts, dry and grind finely, but not to a pasty state. Mix them with spices and powdered sugar.
Sugar syrup for impregnation is done as follows: dissolve sugar in hot water and bring the mixture to a boil. On low heat, the syrup needs to be boiled for about 15 minutes, but not brought to the state of caramelization, otherwise, when the dough is soaked, the syrup will crystallize and the finished baklava will not turn out soft.
The rest of the dough must be manually divided into pieces the size of a ping-pong ball. Each piece needs to be rolled out as thin as possible and greased with melted butter. Sprinkle with nut filling on top. On top of this layer of dough you need to lay out the next one, also oiled and sprinkled with filling. Do the same with the remaining pieces of dough.
From above, baklava prepared for baking should be greased with beaten egg yolk and put in an oven well preheated to 200 degrees for 15 minutes. After that you need to get the pastries, grease them with melted butter and send them back to the oven for an hour. Readiness is determined by the presence of a beautiful golden crust on the baklava.
Ready, slightly cooled, baklava pour cold sugar syrup and leave for 6 hours in a cool place. Then put the sweetness on the dish and cut into portions.
Now, knowing how to bake baklava, you can please your household and guests with delicious oriental pastries, which will not leave anyone indifferent. Turkish baklava recipe allows the use of any nuts, even almonds. They will give baking a special flavor. At the same time, you should not save on butter, which determines not only the butteriness, but also the softness of the dough. Lack of oil will result in excessive baking stiffness. Bon Appetit!