Baklava

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A plate with pieces of different types of baklava

Baklava or baklawa (Arabic: بقلاوة ;Persian as باقلوا ): means legume or bean in Arabic. It is a popular rich, sweet pastry found in many cuisines of the Middle East, South Asia, and the Balkans, which are made of chopped nuts layered with phyllo pastry, sweetened with sugar or honey syrup.

History

The history of baklava, like many other foods, is not well documented.

Vryonis (1971) identifies the ancient 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.

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.

Names of baklava

Baklava is found in many cuisines, with essentially the same name:

• In Afghan cuisine.
• In Albanian cuisine as bakllava.
• In Armenian cuisine as փախլավա (pʼaḫlava).
• In Assyrian cuisine.
• In Azeri cuisine.
• In Bangladeshi cuisine.
• In Bosnian cuisine as baklava.
• In Bulgarian cuisine as баклава (baklava).
• In Egyptian cuisine as بقلاوة (baʼlēwa).
• In Georgian cuisine as tapluna.
• In Greek cuisine as μπακλαβάς. (mpaklavás or baklavás). This is also the most famous type in the United States.
• In Indian cuisine.
• In Iraqi cuisine.
• In Israeli cuisine as בַּקְלָוָה or בקלוה (baqlava).
• In Kurdish cuisine.
• In Lebanese cuisine as بقلاوة (baʼlēwa).
• In Levantine cuisine as بقلاوة (baʼlēwa).
• In Macedonian cuisine as баклава (baklava)
• In Montenegrin cuisine as baklava.
• In Pakistani cuisine.
• In Persian cuisine as باقلوا (baqlavā).
• In Palestinian cuisine as بقلاوة (bak'lawa).
• In Romanian cuisine as baclava.
• In Serbian cuisine as баклава, baklava
• In Syrian cuisine as بقلاوة (baʼlēwa).
• In Turkish cuisine as baklava, Ottoman باقلوا. It is the most famous type, especially in Europe.

Preparation

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.

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 1860646034.
• Vryonis, Speros, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor, 1971. Quoted in Perry (1994).