Baklava

Baklava
Dessert
Baklava is prepared on large trays and cut into a variety of shapes
Place of origin:
Ottoman Empire
Region or state:
Countries of the former Ottoman Empire and Central Asia
Serving temperature:
Cold, room temperature or re-warmed
Main ingredient(s):
Phyllo dough, nuts, sweetening
Variations:
Multiple
Recipes at Wikibooks:
Baklava
Media at Wikimedia Commons:
Baklava

Baklava (/ˈbɑːkləvɑː/, /bɑːkləˈvɑː/,^[1] or /bəˈklɑːvə/;^[2] also baqlawah) is a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, but is also found in Central and Southwest Asia.

Name

The word baklava is first attested in English in 1650,^[3] a borrowing from Ottoman Turkish باقلوا /bɑːklɑvɑː/.^[4][5] The name baklava is used in many languages with minor phonetic and spelling variations.

The origin of the name is unclear. Buell argues that the word "baklava" may come from the Mongolian root baγla- 'to tie, wrap up, pile up' composed with the Turkic verbal ending -v;^[6] baγla- itself in Mongolian is a Turkic loanword.^[7] The Armenian-Turkish linguist Sevan Nişanyan considers its oldest known forms (pre-1500) to be baklağı and baklağu, and labels it as being of Proto-Turkic origin, but without further documentation.^[8]

Though the suffix -vā might suggest a Persian origin,^[9][10] the baqla- part does not appear to be Persian.^[11] Another form of the word is also recorded in Persian, باقلبا (bāqlabā).^[12]

The Arabic name is doubtless a borrowing from Turkish,^[13] though a folk etymology, unsupported by Wehr's dictionary, connects it to Arabic بقلة /baqlah/ 'bean'.

History

A typical baklava, sweetened with syrup

Although the history of baklava is not well documented, there is evidence that its current form was developed in the imperial kitchens of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul based on a Central Asian Turkic tradition of layered breads.^[14]

The tradition of layered breads by Turkic peoples in Central Asia suggests the "missing link" between the Central Asian folded or layered breads (which did not include nuts) and modern phyllo-based pastries like baklava would be the Azerbaijani dish Bakı pakhlavası, which involves layers of dough and nuts. The Uzbek pakhlava, puskal or yupka, and Tatar yoka, sweet and salty savories (boreks) prepared with 10–12 layers of dough, are other early examples of layered dough style in Turkic regions.^[13] The thin phyllo dough used today was probably developed in the kitchens of the Topkapı Palace.

The Sultan presented trays of baklava to the Janissaries every 15th of the month of Ramadan in a ceremonial procession called the Baklava Alayı.^[15]

One of the oldest known recipes for a sort of proto-baklava is Güllaç, also found in Turkish cuisine. It consists of layers of phyllo dough that are put one by one in warmed up milk with sugar. It is served with walnut and fresh pomegranate and generally eaten during Ramadan. The first known documentation of Güllaç is in a food and health manual written in 1330 that documented primarily Mongol-Turkic foods called Yinshan Zhenyao (飮膳正要), which was written by Husihui (忽思慧) who was a Turkic physician to the Mongol court of the Yuan dynasty^[6]

Other theories about baklava's origins include:

• That it dates back to ancient Mesopotamia, and was mentioned in a Mesopotamian cookbook on walnut dishes. But there is no evidence for this.
• That al-Baghdadi describes something similar to it in his 13th-century cookbook. Claudia Roden^[16] finds no evidence for it in Arab or even medieval Persian sources and suggests it arrived in the region during the Ottoman period.
• That it was a popular Byzantine dessert.^[17] Many Ottoman sweets are similar to Byzantine sweets, using dough, sesame, wheat, nuts and fruits, and some were similar to the Ottoman börek, halva, and so on. ^{[citation needed]} There are some similarities between baklava and the Ancient Greek gastris (γάστρις),^[18] kopte sesamis (κοπτὴ σησαμίς), kopton (κοπτόν), or koptoplakous (κοπτοπλακοῦς).^[19] Gastris is mentioned in the Deipnosophistae^[20] and Speros Vryonis called it a "Byzantine favorite".^[21] But though gastris contained a filling of nuts and honey, its outer layers did not include any dough, but rather a honey and ground sesame mixture similar to modern pasteli or halva.^[22] Even so, there is strong possibility that such similarities are simply due to the natural foods of the common geography that the two empires successively ruled.

Preparation

Baklava is normally prepared in large pans. Many layers of phyllo dough, separated with melted butter, are laid in the pan. A layer of chopped nuts—typically walnuts or pistachios, but hazelnuts are also sometimes used—is placed on top, then more layers of phyllo. Most recipes have multiple layers of phyllo and nuts, though some have only top and bottom pastry.

Before baking, the dough is cut into regular pieces, often parallelograms (lozenge-shaped), triangles, or rectangles.

A syrup, which may include honey, rosewater, or orange flower water is poured over the cooked baklava and allowed to soak in.

Baklava is usually served at room temperature, often garnished with ground nuts.

Regional variations

In Turkey, baklava traditionally is made by filling between the layers of dough with pistachios, walnuts, almonds (parts of the Aegean Region) or a special preparation called "kaymak" (not to confuse with kaymak). In the Black Sea Region hazelnuts are commonly used as a filling for baklava.^[23] The city of Gaziantep in southeast Turkey is famous for its pistachio baklava and regarded there as its native city, though it only appears to have been introduced to Gaziantep from Damascus in 1871.^[24] In 2008, the Turkish patent office registered a geographical indication for Antep Baklava,^[25] and in 2013, Antep Baklavası or Gaziantep Baklavası was registered as a Protected Geographical Indication by the European Commission.^[26]

In many parts of Turkey, baklava is often topped with kaymak or, in the summer, ice cream (milk cream flavour, called "kaymaklı dondurma").

In the Balkans, it is a popular dessert. It is also made on special occasions, especially by Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr, and by Christians during Pascha and Christmas.

In Albania, the dough may include egg yolks, and the filling uses walnuts.^{[citation needed]}

In Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia, baklava is made with walnuts and sugar syrup.

In Greece, baklava is supposed to be made with 33 dough layers, referring to the years of Christ's life.^[27]

In Armenia, paklava is made with cinnamon and cloves.^[28]

In Azerbaijan, pakhlava is mostly prepared during the Nowruz festivity. After preparation the pakhlava is cut into diamond shapes and each piece is garnished with an almond or a walnut.

In Afghanistan and Cyprus, baklava is prepared into triangle-shaped pieces and is lightly covered in crushed pistachio nuts.

In Georgia, baklava is made with honey, sugar, walnuts, vanilla, butter, and sour cream.

In Iran, a drier version of baklava is cooked and presented in smaller diamond-shaped cuts flavored with rose water. The cities of Yazd and Qazvin are famous for their baklava, which is widely distributed in Iran.^[29] Persian baklava uses a combination of chopped almonds and pistachios spiced with cardamom and a rose water-scented syrup and is lighter than Middle Eastern versions.^[9][30]

In Israel, baklava is made of phyllo pastry sheets, nuts, such as pistachios, walnuts, hazelnuts, and almonds, sweet butter, clove, sugar, cinammon, and the syrup combined with orange and lemon rind.^{[citation needed]}

In Jordan, baklava is made of dough layers filled with nuts, such as pistachios, and sugar or honey syrup.^[31]

In Lebanon, baklava is made of filo pastry filled with nuts and steeped in Attar syrup (orange or rose water or sugar) or honey. It is usually cut into triangular or diamond shapes.

In Syria, baklava is prepared from phyllo dough sheets, butter, walnuts and sugar syrup. It is cut into lozenge pieces.^[32] Baklava from Aleppo is made with the local pistachios and samna from Hama.^{[citation needed]}

• 

  Baklava served with kaymak and pistachios, typical of Turkey

• 

  Baklava in Aleppo, Syria

• 

  Pakhlava in Ganja, Azerbaijan

• 

  Baklava in Jerusalem

• 

  Baklava in Iraq

See also

• List of pastries
• Turkish cuisine
• Bulgarian cuisine
• Greek cuisine
• Azerbaijani cuisine
• Armenian cuisine
• Macedonian cuisine
• Lebanese cuisine

Notes

References

• Reuven Amitai-Preiss and David O. Morgan, eds., The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy Brill, 1999. ISBN 90-04-11946-9.
• Paul D. Buell, "Mongol Empire and Turkicization: The Evidence of Food and Foodways", p. 200ff, in Amitai-Preiss, 1999.
• Christian, David. Review of Amitai-Preiss, 1999, in Journal of World History 12:2:476 (2001).
• 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.
• Roden Claudia, "A New Book of Middle Eastern Food" ISBN 01-404658-8
• Vryonis, Speros, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor, 1971. Quoted in Perry (1994).
• Wasti, Syed Tanvir, "The Ottoman Ceremony of the Royal Purse", Middle Eastern Studies 41:2:193–200 (March 2005)

External links

Look up baklava in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Baklava.

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Baklava