Whether you call it baklava, baklawa or baclava, you’ll agree with me that this layered dessert is up there with the best sweet treats on earth.
In case you’re not sure what I’m talking about, baklava is a layered pastry sweetened with honey or syrup and filled with nuts. It ends up crispy but dense, sweet but not overly cloying, bready but not entirely – it’s just perfect.
Baklava is well-known in every corner of the earth. You’ll find it in every pastry shop in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and Central Asia. Such a straightforward yet sophisticated dessert deserves further recognition, so here’s the story behind the puff pastry treat.
Baklava, a tangled history
The history behind baklava is unclear since people have enjoyed nuts and honey for millennia; they’re humanity’s first treats along with fruit. Asking around isn’t helpful either as many Middle Eastern countries, including modern Turkey and Greece, claim the dessert as their own.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying all these countries are fibbing, they’re all entitled in a way because baklava predates modern frontiers. The dessert goes back to the Assyrian Empire 1,300 years ago with the first version of the baklava: unleavened bread topped with local nuts and drenched in honey.
A more sophisticated version of the baklava was developed centuries later in the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. A cookbook recovered from a palace in the ancient city of Constantinople already displayed baklava as a favorite dessert, indeed fit for the high society and royalty.
Baklava’s ingredients are neither expensive nor rare. Honey has always been readily available, and so have walnuts and almonds, so why was baklava so highly regarded? Because of filo (phyllo) dough, an extraordinary invention.
It’s all in the filo
Made with flour, water and oil or butter, crafting filo dough is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Not anyone can create ultra-thin layers of dough, artistically separated only by the thinnest brushstroke of butter for the perfect crispy texture.
Now imagine up to fourteen layers of stacked nuts and dough. It comes as no surprise that only affluent people could afford expert bakers to satisfy their cravings for baklava.
Filo dough is not baklava’s only exclusive ingredient. Some regional recipes call for jasmine extract, and others will taint the upper layer with the rare and expensive saffron. Above all, the craftsmanship needed to make baklava is its most valued asset.
The dessert eventually permeated down to all layers of society, and baklava became a specialty reserved for weddings, festivities and special occasions all across the region.
Since then, the dessert has been a staple in all countries with Mesopotamian or Ottoman ancestors. Obviously, their people have taken the dessert with them around the world.
Today there’s no one baklava, but many. You can find infinite variations, and they’re all well worth trying.
Now you know it
The next time you see baklava displayed in a storefront, or you spot it on a restaurant menu, grab a bite. Share your newfound knowledge about the ancestral treat with friends and family and help perpetuate the glorious sweet for generations to come.
If you have the chance to visit a country linked with baklava like Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Egypt, Hungary, Lebanon or Israel, you’re in for a treat!
Although baklava is always delicious, there’s nothing like the real thing. Enjoy it in a place where it’s not only one more dessert but also a part of the culture, the people and their history.
Author
Franco Salzillo is a food and wine writer and certified sommelier hungry to share delicious knowledge about all kinds of tasty topics.
