Baklava- Arabian Delights

Baklava is the richest and most aromatic of Middle Eastern sweets, traditionally eaten with a small cup of strong, black Arabic coffee, perfumed with cardamom and unsweetened.

Regional Favorites

There are many regional variations for baklava from the Levant, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Greece, each with their characteristic style. Most consist of a nut filling using pistachios, walnuts or almond between the layers of buttery phyllo dough. In the Levant baklava is scented with orange blossom or rose water, but Greeks and Turks prefer theirs spiced with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and sometimes cardamom. During Rosh Hashana, or the Jewish New Year, it is traditional to use light colored nuts such as almonds to symbolize the goodness of the year to come.

Although Turkish multilayered phyllo baklava has been popularized in many countries, the Persian and Azeri varieties call for much fewer layers, as little as three or four.

The Best Place to Buy Baklava in Israel

There are some who make a pilgrimage to Nazareth to visit the churches or mosques or to wander through the mysterious old city where Jesus once walked. But for me it is the baklava shops that are the main attraction in this beautiful city.

Commercial baklava is often made using insipid vegetable oil or margarine because it is inexpensive. But in Sadaqas, a pastry shop preferred by the locals,  the baklava is made with butter and that makes all the difference. The scents permiating the bakery is luxurious and intoxicating, entising anyone passing by.

Their pastries are the most delicious I have ever tasted and also the most varied, with pistachio, almond, walnut and pinenut versions layered with handmade phyllo dough and kadaif ( a thin, shredded wheat like pastry).

Another widely known baklava is made by the Mahroum bakery also located in the center of Nazareth. It produces kosher and nondairy baklava which is widely available, being sold at many super markets throughout the country. Although lacking in buttery flavor it is still a high quality product I recommend. It’s often preferred by Jews who observe kashrut (dietary adherence including separation of milk and meat) because it can be eaten after a meat meal.

Baklava from ancient times until today

According to the food historian, Charles Perry, the origin of baklava comes from the simple cuisine of the nomadic Turks who baked thinly rolled out bread on a saj (looks like an inverted wok used for making flat bread) and called it yufka. This bread was layered and filled to form a primitive baklava. This in turn evolved into a pastry made of eight layers of dough between ground nuts. Eventually, the phyllo dough baklava which is popular today was developed by the Ottoman Turks in the Topkapi palace kitchens.

Another possible origin may be the pastry called lauzeenaj that was made in the 10th century and had many of the characteristics of today’s baklava. Nawal Nasrallah, an expert on Iraqi cuisine and history, says that waraq, the thinnest of thin breads (raqeeq al riqaq) was stuffed with almonds and sugar, flavored with mastic resin and rose water, and fried in almond oil.

The nomadic Turkish technique of making thin bread may have been incorporated by the Ottoman Turks to make delicate layered baklava. Or perhaps the waraq, the thin dough made in Baghdad, was adopted by the Turks, but instead of rolling it, they sandwiched the filling between multiple sheets.

Today Gaziantep in eastern Turkey is renowned for its baklava, attracting culinary tourists from around the world.

Baklava

Based on a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo by Poopa Dweck

500 grams phyllo dough

Sugar syrup

3 cups of sugar

1 ½ cups of water

1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ teaspoon rosewater or orange blossom water

Filling

250 grams pistachios, peeled and roughly chopped

250 grams, blanched almonds, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons sugar

500 grams butter, unsalted

Mix the water, sugar, lemon juice and orange or rose water and cook over medium heat while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon. When the mixture boils reduce the heat and continue cooking for another 15 minutes or until a thick syrup is formed ( 225 F or 107 C on a candy thermometer). Cool completely.  It may be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Melt the butter.

Lay the phyllo dough on large baking pan. Brush with butter and add another layer, continue layering and buttering another 6-7 phyllo sheets (about half of the contents of the box). Mix the ground nuts with the sugar and 100 grams of the melted butter and spread them evenly on the buttered layers of phyllo dough. Cover with remaining phyllo dough, buttering between each layer. Cut the baklava into squares or diamonds using a sharp knife. Just before baking, lightly sprinkle the top of the pastry with cold water. This inhibits the pastry from curling.

Bake for 45 minutes at 180C/350 F or until golden brown. Remove from oven and pour 1 cup of sugar syrup evenly over the entire baklava. Cool.

Sources: Delights from the Garden of Eden, Nawal Nasrallah

A Taste of Thyme, Edited by Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper

Sadaqas Sweet:

Telephone

054-6463096

050-942080

Saliman Salach road, western Nazareth neighborhood

It is Muslim owned and thus open on Sunday.