Greeks and Turks were, throughout the history, never 'good' friends but in some areas they resemble a lot, especially through the popularity of 'Baklava'.
I am not gonna take any political color here as Baklava is way too sweet discuss about its origins.
This sweet pastry is widely known throughout the Balkans and the near East so I would rather refer to it as a Mediterranean dessert/snack. It suits very well a (and again) 'Greek' coffee or a glass of water. Baklava is 'The way' to welcome your guests.
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
- 50 gr. chopped walnuts and/or almonds.
- 4 tablespoons of bread crumbs.
- 4 tablespoons of sugar.
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon (powder).
- 250 gr. of butter.
- 300 gr. of 'filo' (puff pastry) dough.For the syrup:
- 250 gr. of sugar.
- 200 gr. of honey.
- 2 cloves.
- 1 vanilla stick.
- juice of 1 lemon.
- 1.5L of water.
Preparation:
For the syrup:
- Put the sugar in the water.
- Boil the mixture for about 5 minutes.
- Add the honey, cloves and the vanilla stick.
- Boil 2 - 3 minutes more.
- Filter out the cloves and the vanilla stick.
- Pour the lemon juice in the mixture.
- Place this syrup in a cool place.
For the pastry:
- (1) Mix the chopped walnuts and/or almonds with the bread crumbs, sugar en cinnamon.
- (2) Melt the butter in a frying pan.
- (3) Pre-warm the oven to 180° Celsius.
- (4) Butter the baking molds.
- (5) Coat the puff pastry (layers) with butter.
- (6) Put, at least, 2 layers in the baking mold.
- (7) Cover with some nut mixture.
- (8) Repeat steps (6) & (7) at least 9 to 10 times.
- (9) Finish with a buttered layer puff pasty.
- (10) Sprinkle a little water over the top layer.
- (11) Bake the mold about 30' - 40' until auburn (golden-brown).Finally:
- Pour the syrup over the pastry. (Make sure the pastry is hot and the syrup is cold).
Enjoy!
This dessert is very rich so don't overdo it.
You will, just like me, easily take 17 kilos within a few weeks!
Looks yummy . Did you realy make this. Its a very simple and nice ingresien you had mention