Baklava

Baklava is as famous as Turkey or Istanbul. The famous sweet is often carried back by all tourists to share the beautiful memories. From the look of it they appear to be a typical laborious , fit for bakeries or sweet shop employees to make kind of dish.

There are cheat versions available to make them at home, like using the filo pastries or the wonton sheets. I have tried them all but this time I had decided to give the real version a go. It turned out to be much easier to do activity than what I had expected. I think the approach made the difference...

Ingredients

2 cups All purpose flour/ Maida

1.5 cups cornstarch

1 egg

a pinch of salt

2 tbsp crushed walnuts

1 tbsp crushed pistachio

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

a tspn lemon juice

Method

1) In a bowl, lightly beat the egg with salt. Add the flour to this and knead with hands. Use upto 1 or 2 tspns of water to make a soft pliable dough. The dough should be soft like chapati dough. Cover with damp towel and set aside for 10 min

2) Rub some oil on your palms and knead the dough for 10 min or so. Make 3 parts of the dough of equal size. 

3) For each part, make 4 small same size balls. They would be about the size of a lemon.

4) Roll out each small ball using lot of corn starch to make puri like rolls. Place all 4 on top of each other and sprinkle more starch between them while placing them on top of each other. Repeat this for the rest of the 2 large dough balls.

 

5) Now you will have 3 piles of rolls in total. Each roll should easily separate from each other

6) Now roll out each pile, flipping it over alternatively, to ensure both sides are equally stretched to the size of your baking dish. Do not worry if they turn out thin, they wont break 

7) Now place the rolled out pile on a greased baking dish. Brush the top with butter and sprinkle with walnut powder

8) Repeat the process with the second pile and cover it with the third pile. Brush the top again with butter

9) Now cut the set base using a sharp knife in diamond shapes.

10) Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 35 min or until the top is slightly brown. and the leaves appear seperated. 

10) While it is baking, in a pan, mix the sugar, water and lemon juice. Mix it until the sugar is fully dissolved. Heat on medium flame for 15 min undisturbed or until it comes to a boil. Switch off the flame and set aside

11) When the baklava is cooked, remove from the oven and let it cool down for ONLY 10 min, so that they are slightly warm. 

12) Pour the sugar syrup on top. Sprinkle with pistachios and devour

Tips

1) If you pour the syrup when the base is too hot, the baklava will be soggy 

2) If you pour the syrup when the base is too cold it will not absorb the syrup well.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44