Historically, the peoples living nearby borrowed all the best that is in the kitchen from each other, and gave the dishes their own national flavor. Today itโs hard to say who invented the baklava or baklava. The Greeks consider it their national delicacy, the Turks their own, and representatives of many other peoples inhabiting a vast area from Central Asia to the coast of the Marmara and the Mediterranean Seas will consider themselves offended if someone doubts that it was their ancestors who came up with a nut pie sweet honey filling.
Without entering into disputes about the origin of this delicacy, we want to tell how the Armenian baklava is prepared.
A bit of history
In the kitchen of every nation you can hear the echoes of its fate. For historical reasons, Armenians, like Greeks, Bulgarians and many other peoples, for many centuries lived under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire. Almost all of them cook baklava or baklava. Armenians also have some interesting recipes for such baking. In particular, unlike the Greeks, they prepare it from yeast rather than dough filo. Consider one of the most famous recipes of Armenian baklava.
What is required
The dough for Armenian homemade baklava is prepared from:
- 75 ml of milk;
- 3 g dry yeast;
- 3 g of granulated sugar;
- 250 g of flour;
- 1 eggs
- 1/4 tsp salts;
- 75 g sour cream;
- 25 g butter.
To prepare the filling for the Armenian baklava, you will need:
- 130 g of walnut kernels;
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder;
- 125 g of granulated sugar.
The fill is prepared from:
- 50 ml of water;
- 75 g of honey.
In addition, to decorate and lubricate the baking surface you will need:
- 60 g of oil;
- 50 g of kernels of nuts;
- egg.
Armenian baklava recipe with photo
To prepare the test proceed as follows:
- in a small bowl mix sugar, yeast and milk and put in a warm place for 10 minutes;
- in a large bowl knead the dough from flour, melted butter, eggs and sour cream and salt;
- add milk and yeast to the dough and knead;
- cover with a towel and put in a warm place for an hour and a half.
Assembly
Homemade Armenian baklava, the recipe of which you already know, is usually cooked with walnuts. Sometimes almonds, peanuts, or a mixture thereof are also used.
To prepare the filling, put the nuts in the oven and calcine. After they cool, grind in a blender. Powdered sugar, cinnamon are added and mixed.
The rising dough is divided into 13 equal parts and form balls. Cover them with a towel so that they do not wind off. The last two are connected to make a large ball. It is rolled out so that it is a little larger in size than a large round-oiled one on which they are going to bake baklava. The thickness of the dough should be about 1 cm.
Melt the butter and grease the surface of the layer that is in the mold.
Thinly roll out the second ball of dough and put on the previous one. Sprinkle 1/10 part of the nut dry filling.
Do the same with 9 other balls. Moreover, the filling is applied to the last, retreating 2-3 cm from the edge.
Baklava decoration
Photos of the Armenian baklava evoke a desire for stasis to cook and try this sweet treat. Last but not least, the attractive appearance of this oriental walnut honey pie contributes to this .
To give the baklava a traditional look in the form of an ornament that can be seen on Armenian carpets, proceed as follows:
- the dough that extends beyond the mold is cut off at the edges, leaving 2 cm;
- grease the edges with a beaten egg
- roll out the last ball of dough;
- cover them with baklava;
- smeared with the remaining egg chatter;
- with a sharp large knife that was kept in cold water for several minutes, cut a round baklava in diameter so that 8 sectors of the same size were obtained, trying to prevent the knife from reaching the middle layer;
- then each sector is cut so that it turns out 3 rhombuses and 3 triangles along the edges of the form;
- they pick out the neat halves of the walnut kernels and put one in the center of each rhombus, slightly pressing so that they subsequently do not fall from the pie.
Baking
Baklava is cooked in an oven or in an oven, heated to a temperature of 180 degrees. First, the form is sent there for 15 minutes. Then they are removed and watered with melted butter, having previously been cut to the end. Again send the form to the oven.
While the Armenian baklava is being cooked, they are preparing pouring. Boiled and slightly cooled water is poured onto honey and mixed until smooth. Take out the baklava and water 1/3 of the fill. The cake is again sent to the oven for 10 minutes.
Ready baklava is left to cool. Take out the cake from the mold. Beautifully spread on a large tray in the order in which the pieces were lying during baking. Once again, pour over the remaining syrup. Leave to cool and soak. Serve to the table after 20 minutes. However, it would be better if the cake lasts about 1 hour.
Arishta baklava
Along with the traditional walnut-honey cake in Armenia, another variant of this delicacy is also being prepared.
In general, arishta, or as it is called in some regions, rshta is a special type of homemade noodles from which pilaf is made and used in the preparation of soups. It is believed that it was invented in Persia. At least this is evidenced by the translation of the word Reshte (ุฑุดุชู), which in Farsi means โstripesโ or โthreadsโ.
What is required
To prepare the test you need to take:
- ยฝ kg of flour;
- 50 g of butter and granulated sugar;
- 1 egg
- 250 g sour cream;
- 1/2 tsp salt and the same amount of baking powder (can be replaced with a mixture of citric acid and baking soda).
The filling is prepared from:
- 350 g of any peeled nuts, usually walnuts;
- 150 g of powdered sugar;
- 2 chicken eggs;
- 4 tsp cinnamon powder;
- 2 tbsp. l confectionery crumbs;
- some cardamom powder.
To fill, you need to take:
- 1/2 kg of granulated sugar;
- 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp. boiling water.
In addition, for the assembly you will need to take another 100 g of butter.
How to make dough for arishta
The recipe for Armenian baklava with noodle dough is quite simple to implement. To prepare the dough you need:
- grind the egg yolk with white sugar;
- add softened butter;
- grind everything until smooth;
- beat the squirrels in another bowl and combine with pre-whipped sour cream;
- combine with egg-oil mixture;
- pour baking powder;
- to salt;
- knead the dough, gradually adding wheat flour;
- the stasis is divided into several parts and rolled into layers about 2 cm thick;
- leave them slightly weathered;
- each roll up, cut in the form of noodles and laid out on the table.
How to cook the filling and "collect" baklava
In order to get confectionery crumb, part of the noodles are baked and dried in a preheated oven for 2-3 minutes. Next, prepare a complex filling, in the manner described above. When it is ready, proceed to the assembly of baklava:
- a shape the size of a large soup bowl is greased with ghee;
- tightly spread 3 layers of noodles on the bottom of the mold, smearing with oil, each perpendicular to the previous one;
- spread on top of a thin layer of filling;
- cover with arishta;
- spread the filling and repeat the same steps 3 times, not forgetting to coat the layers with oil.
- after applying the latter, grease the baklava with a beaten egg;
- cut with several diagonal lines and sent to a very hot oven;
- Prepare the fill as described in previous recipes;
- after 5 minutes, remove the baklava from the oven;
- pour it with melted butter and put back in the oven for 20 minutes, reducing the heat to medium, and after another 10 minutes - to weak.
Take out the form from the furnace and deepen the cuts. Watered with syrup. Leave for 10 minutes. They are removed from the mold, laid out on a dish and served.