Some Information About The Dessert Called Baklava

By Luisa Sharpe Baklava is a type of dessert found in the Middle East and Mediterranean that dates as far back as the Ottoman Empire. It is also found in parts of Asia. This dessert is a type of pastry that is incredibly rich and also very sweet. It is often served in very small portions, which could be due to how rich and intense the flavor is. It is essentially made up of multiple layers of filo pastry with a filling of honey or syrup and also chopped nuts. Though it is prepared in a large pan, it is cut up into much smaller bite-sized portions in different shapes prior to baking. The most common shapes for it are triangles, rectangles or parallelograms. It is made by laying down many phyllo dough layers in a baking pan. Each layer is coated with melted butter. The chopped nut filling is placed in between the bottom set of layers and the top set of layers. The filling can be made using walnuts, pistachios or even hazelnuts and almonds. The pastry is finished with top layers of more dough. The cooked pastry is then covered with a very sweet flavored syrup. This syrup can be made of a number of ingredients, commonly honey and sometimes rosewater or other extracts. Turkish areas further amplify this dessert by eating it with ice cream of a milk cream flavor during the summer months, or a preparation named 'kaymak'. Across the region where the dessert is common, different ways of preparing it are noted, sometimes with additional or substitute ingredients. One of the reasons for varied methods of preparation is religion. An example of this is how the Greeks prepare it using the same number of layers of dough as the number of years Christ lived. Paklava is the name given to the dessert in Armenia. In this country, cloves and cinnamon are a part of the recipe. In the country of Georgia, vanilla and sour cream are two other ingredients that can be found. In Albania, the dough of the dessert can be made using egg yolks. While the dessert is quite rich in the Middle East, it tastes much lighter in Iran. You can find phyllo dough at any major supermarket, in the frozen food aisle. While there are many variations on the dessert recipe, you should be able to make this dessert without any difficulty. First, butter a large pan before laying down 2 sheets of the phyllo dough. Brush melted butter onto the top sheet and repeat the previous steps with more sheet of dough until you have 8 layers. Cover the top layer with some chopped nuts mixed with cinnamon. Put 2 more dough layers over this, butter it up and add more nuts. Place about six or eight more layers on top of the final layer of nuts. Use a sharp knife to cut the pastry into diamond shapes and put into an oven that has been preheated to 350 F for just under an hour. When it is finished baking, pour a syrup concoction of boiled water and white sugar simmered for 20 minutes with a tsp of vanilla extract and half a cup of honey.

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