Projekty europejskie Zespołu Szkół Ponadpodstawowych nr 2 Centrum Kształcenia Zawodowego im Tadeusza Kościuszki w Łowiczu
Baklava or Balaklava?
About the most popular sweets in Greece
Baklava is traditional baked dessert in Greece cuisine, also popular in Turkish, Bulgarian and Persian cuisine. Dessert is being prepared from so-called ciasta listkowego, in Greece called “fyllo”. This dough is layered with a layer of nuts (most often pistachios), but also often walnuts or almonds.
Assyrians, who lives in the eastern Mediterranean, as early as the 8th century BCE made sweet desserts with grated nuts and honey in batter, creating an early form of the familiar baklava. According to this theory, Greek sailors and merchants who traveled east discovered this sweet dessert and brought this recipe to Greece. A great contribution of the Greeks to the development of sweets was the invention of a technique that allowed the dough to be rolled out into a thin sheet, baklava itself could consist of many layers of thin dough interleavedorzechami. In this form, baklava-like dough was prepared as early as the 5th century BCE.
According to some researchers, the Turks were the inventors of baklava, and the most common theory is that baklava was created by Turkish families in Asia Minor, from where it found its way to the Sultan’s court.
In the kitchens of the Topkari Palace, a recipe for a paper-thin dough to be used in the preparation of baklava was to be created.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of phyllo dough
- 200 g of butter (best clarified)
- 500 g of white almonds (can be walnuts, hazelnuts or pistachios)
- 1 spoon of powdered cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon of grated cloves
- ½ teaspoon of grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon of the peel of the orange
- ¾ glasses of grated biscuits or fine breadcrumbs
- ½ cup of sugar
Method of preparing:
1.Shred the almonds. In a bowl, mix almonds (or nuts), bread roll, sugar and spices.
2. Smear the baking tray with melted butter and place 6 layers of fyllo dough one by one, spreading butter on each one. On top of this we sprinkle our nut mixture and cover it with two layers of dough, brush it again with butter and sprinkle with the nut mixture.
3. Then two layers of fyllo and nuts again and so on until the filling is exhausted.
4. Finally, we put four layers of fyllo dough, each spreading with butter. Grease the top with the remaining butter, cut into squares, and insert a clove into each square.
5. Put the dough into an oven preheated to 165 degrees Celsius and bake it for an hour to an hour and a half, until browned.
6. Pour sugar into the pot, pour water over it, add lemon zest and cinnamon. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes. Then add honey and lemon juice, mix until the honey dissolves and it’s ready.
7. Remove the baked cake from the oven and pour it over with syrup. Then put it into the turned off but still warm oven so that the dough absorbs the syrup well.
8. We serve warm or at room temperature.
1.Shred the almonds. In a bowl, mix almonds (or nuts), bread roll, sugar and spices.
2. Smear the baking tray with melted butter and place 6 layers of fyllo dough one by one, spreading butter on each one. On top of this we sprinkle our nut mixture and cover it with two layers of dough, brush it again with butter and sprinkle with the nut mixture.
3. Then two layers of fyllo and nuts again and so on until the filling is exhausted.
4. Finally, we put four layers of fyllo dough, each spreading with butter. Grease the top with the remaining butter, cut into squares, and insert a clove into each square.
5. Put the dough into an oven preheated to 165 degrees Celsius and bake it for an hour to an hour and a half, until browned.
6. Pour sugar into the pot, pour water over it, add lemon zest and cinnamon. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes. Then add honey and lemon juice, mix until the honey dissolves and it’s ready.
7. Remove the baked cake from the oven and pour it over with syrup. Then put it into the turned off but still warm oven so that the dough absorbs the syrup well.
8. We serve warm or at room temperature.
Ingredients for the preparation of the syrup:
- 3 cups of sugar
- 2 cups of water
- lemon peel
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 spoons of lemon juice
- ½ cup of honey
- 1 teaspoon flower water
Method of preparing:
- Pour sugar into the pot, pour water over it, add lemon zest and cinnamon. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes. Then add honey and lemon juice, mix until the honey dissolves and it’s ready.
- Remove the baked cake from the oven and pour it over with syrup.Then put it into the turned off but still warm oven so that the dough absorbs the syrup well.