Güllaç

Güllaç
Course Dessert
Place of origin Turkey
Main ingredients corn starch, wheat flour, walnuts, milk, pomegranate
Cookbook:Güllaç  Güllaç

Güllaç (pronounced [ˈɟylːatʃ]) is a Turkish dessert made with milk, pomegranate and a special kind of pastry. It is consumed especially during Ramadan.

Güllaç is considered as being the origin of baklava.[1] The similarities between the two desserts are many, such as the use of thin layers of dough and nuts in between. Güllaç dough is now prepared with corn starch and wheat flour, although originally it was made only with wheat starch. Güllaç contains walnuts between the layers that are put in milk.

Its first known mention is in a 14th-century book, Yinshan Zhenyao (飮膳正要), a food and health manual written by Husihui (忽思慧), a Turkic physician to the Mongol court of the Yuan dynasty. The book documents primarily Mongol and Turkic dishes that exhibit a limited amount of Chinese influence.[1]

Güllaç was used for making Güllaç Lokması and Güllaç Baklavası, archaic Turkish desserts made during Ottoman period in Turkey. The etymology of Güllaç is actually combination of two words Güllü and aş, meaning "food with roses". Although the dessert itself may contain rose leaves and rose syrup, the name actually refers to the shape of layers which look similar to leaves of roses.

Elsewhere

A similar dessert called Umm Ali is made in Egyptian cuisine. It differs primarily in that raisins are used instead of pomegranate seeds.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Husihui; Paul D. Buell, Eugene N. Anderson; appendix by Charles Perry (2010). A soup for the Qan: Chinese dietary medicine of the Mongol era as seen in Hu Szu-Hui's Yin-shan cheng-yao (2nd rev. and expanded ed. ed.). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-18020-6.