How to Make Istanbul Baklava

According to the SaedNews cooking section, in the past, grandmothers used to painstakingly roll out dough at home and layer it paper-thin. To achieve perfect baklava, at least 20 dough balls had to be rolled out extremely thin, which required great effort and experience. Today, we use ready-made yufka dough for this recipe. As the Turks say: there is no Eid without sweets!

Ingredients for Baklava

• Ready-made yufka dough (for baklava) – 20 sheets

• Walnuts or pistachios (ground) – 200 g

• Sugar – 2 cups

• Lemon juice – 1 teaspoon

• Butter – 150 g

• Cinnamon – ½ teaspoon

• Water – 2 cups

• Pistachio (ground, for garnish) – 2 tablespoons

Instructions

1. Open the prepared yufka sheets one by one. To ensure uniform baklava pieces, trim the edges neatly using a sharp knife.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. To prevent burning during baking, skim off the foam that forms on top.

3. Mix the ground walnuts with cinnamon in a small bowl.

4. Brush ten sheets of rectangular yufka dough with melted butter and stack them on top of each other.

5. Sprinkle the walnut and cinnamon mixture over the layered dough.

6. Brush another ten sheets of yufka with butter and place them on top of the nut layer.

7. Roll the layered dough tightly, then cut it into small rectangular pieces and place them on a greased baking tray.

8. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Brush the remaining melted butter over the baklava pieces and bake until golden brown.

Syrup Preparation

1. Combine water and sugar in a small pot and heat over medium flame until it comes to a boil and the sugar fully dissolves.

2. Once the syrup is ready, let it cool slightly.

3. Pour the cooled syrup over the hot baked baklava and allow it to absorb completely before serving.