Before our family problems started, my mother would give us special recipes at certain times of each month.
Homemade chocolate, apple cookie, cake, etc. One of them would definitely be baklava. It was my primary school-secondary school years back then. I would be very enthusiastic to do something with my mom, and I would be very happy when I got my hands on those dough for some reason. I sometimes got upset when I saw that he was ready as soon as he came from school. Why didn't you wait for me, we would do it together. Fortunately, I would always be with you at baklava time. As I watched it, I occasionally tore a pinch of raw dough in my mouth. You should do it without notice, because "Raw dough is not eaten! If you eat it, your stomach will be sore!" I would get an alert. There were advice for many things in our period anyway.
The last time I was 16 was when my uncle and his ex-wife Elizabeth came to us, we had baklava. Since he is a foreigner, we wanted him not to leave without eating our Turkish food and baklava. My mother had done it with him. Then I remember Elizabeth photographed every moment of the dessert. We also made a floor mattress for him at his request. As a Turk, we were happy to welcome him with our customs and traditions and send him off. When he returned to his country, he wrote a letter and sent us the pictures he took. Of course, we didn't know what he meant because we didn't speak Danish, but with the hearts he drew and the kisses he sent, we understood how much he loved us more or less. We exchanged letters for a while, then she passed away.
Ah baklava, where did you take me? And now, when my mother said, "Are we crazy girls, why don't we ever do it?" Anyway. I don't want to bore you any more with my childhood memories. That's why I immediately switch to the recipe. It is not a difficult dessert as we fear it, but we need to have a taste and consistency. After a few trials, you may be skilled in baklava. Actually, sharing the recipe came to my mind afterwards. And because I helped my mother, I could not take pictures with great care. So please excuse me. Shall we move on to our recipe?
Materials;
- For the dough;
- 1 egg
- 1 water glass measure of oil
- 1 packet butter
- 1 packet of baking powder
- 1 glass of milk
- 1 pinch of salt
Measuring the flour did not come to our mind. My mother said as much as she bought, but when I look at it, I can give 5 - 6 glasses of flour. It is enough if it is as much as an earlobe that will not obtain a very solid dough.
Inner Material;
Walnut (hazelnut if you wish)
To Roll Dough;
- Wheat starch
For Sherbet;
- 5 glasses of water
- 3.5- 4.5 glasses of granulated sugar (you can decide how much sugar you want, we used 3.5 glasses)
The juice of half a lemon
Preparation of Dough;
We add all the dough ingredients in a deep bowl. We knead it for 10 minutes until we get an average soft dough. You can add milk or flour according to the consistency of your dough.
We take small pieces from the kneaded dough and make a walnut-sized meringue. Let's make 60 of these meringues. Let's divide the meringues into 10. We will make one dough out of every 10 meringues we separate.
We add some starch to the ground and open 10 meringues one by one in the size of a saucer. After opening, we put them on top of each other by pouring starch between them. With the help of a roller, we add all 10 layers of dough on top of each other and open it again until it reaches the size of a tray.
Let's put the tray that we will cook on the dough we opened and measure it. Let's put it in the tray. We put two layers of dough so that the bottom is not thin, so we make two doughs with 20 meringue.
After placing two pieces of dough, we beat our walnuts or hazelnuts in a mortar until we get tiny pieces without powdering them.
We spread the walnuts that we chopped up to a handful on the tray. Then we add the dough again and put walnuts again. With each remaining 10 meringues, we roll out doughs, add walnuts and repeat the same process. With 60 meringues, we have obtained 6 layers of dough in total.
Cut off the excess parts after we cover our last layer. If you leave it on the edge, those parts will remain much dough. Then you can slice the dessert in the shape of a star or as a diamond as you wish.
For the top of the baklava, we put a pack of margarine in the pan and melt it.
We pour the melted margarine into our baklava that we cut.
We bake in 180 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until the top is browned.
While our baklava is cooking, we can prepare its sherbet. If you wish, you can also prepare the sherbet before starting baklava. While pouring, either the sherbet or one of the baklava must be cold. When the baklava has cooled, we poured the sherbet.
We take 5 glasses of water and sugar into the pot. Let it boil for another 10-15 minutes as the sugar melts completely and begins to boil. After 15 minutes, add the lemon juice and boil for another 5-6 minutes. As soon as you take it from the stove, wait 5 minutes and pour it into your tray. If the tray is cold, pour hot syrup, if the tray is hot, pour cold syrup. Make sure that two of them are not hot.
Our delicious mother baklava is ready.
I shared the recipe in Turkish before. I translated it back to English for you.
Bon Appetit!
