It's a Turkish sweet. It is a Turkish term used to identify objects that have a rectangular shape with two acute and two obtuse angles. This shape in Arabic is called “balk-a-wi”. The word baklawa was passed from Arabic to Turkish.
     Baklawa is a rich sweet pastry made of layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. Different types of Baklawa as: Baklawa pistachio/walnut, Bird’s Nest, Burma, Fingers, Balloorieh, Kol-ou-Skor, Basma.  Here i am sharing the pisthachio/walnut type crunchy, golden delicacy… Yum!


INGREDIENTS

Pistachios or walnuts -2 cups
Sugar- 2 tablespoons
Orange-blossom water-2 teaspoons (optional)
Rosewater-1 teaspoon
Clarified butter (ghee) or unsalted butter, melted-350 g
Filo pastry-500 g

SYRUP

Sugar-1 ½ cups
Water-150 ml
Orange-blossom water-½ teaspoon (optional)
Rosewater- ½ teaspoon
Squeeze of lemon juice
PROCEDURE
  • Roast the nuts slightly and crush the nuts in a food processor lightly. Tip into a bowl and mix with the sugar, orange blossom water and rosewater.
  • Preheat the oven to 180°C. Brush a baking tray measuring 20 × 30 cm with melted ghee or butter. Add a layer of filo in the base of the tray and brush with more butter. Keep layering with buttered filo until you have used half the filo. Spread the nuts in an even layer on top. Continue layering with the remaining filo.
  • Carefully cut the baklawa into diamond or square shapes. Pour a little melted butter over the top and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown.
  • Meanwhile, prepare the syrup. Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes, until slightly thickened, then remove from the heat and add the orange-blossom water, rosewater and lemon juice. Pour the hot syrup over the hot pastry. Cool before serving.
Makes approximately 20-25 pieces