Now, it’s time for my favorite part, dessert. And what we’re going to make today is Baklava, world famous Baklava.
To start off, we’ll make our butter mixture. So, I have a little saucepan right here. We’ll turn it on. This is very easy. All you need is half a stick of butter and about a third of a cup of corn oil. And we’re going to melt that together and we’re going to use it to brush our Phyllo Dough.
Now, Phyllo Dough is essential in making Baklava. It’s very popular and easy to find in many of the supermarkets. In turkey, they call it Yufka. Yufka is a very thin and unleavened bread. So, while we’re waiting for that to melt, we’re going to make our mixture. Now, with Baklava, you can make it with walnuts or pistachio or even almonds. We’re going to make walnuts today. And what I usually do is I put them in a ziploc bag and I crush them. I just find that it’s easier for me.
In Turkey, back in the old days, they used the hand crush this in something like what’s called the—it is used to crush garlic or walnuts, everything by hand. But of course these days, convenience is everything and I find that this is a great way to crush all your walnuts without the big mess. So when it’s crushed, we’re just going to put it in our mixing bowl and you’re going to add in two tablespoons of sugar and two tablespoons f cinnamon which I have right here already prepared. And our butter mixture is melting quite nicely. So, you just want to mix that up and that’s really how easy that is. And in fact, once this has boiled, you can even pour a little bit on to get it really nice and creamy. So, I’m going to do that right now because it’s just about ready just a little bit.
Now again, there are so many different variations of Baklava. You could make it your own. I love it with the cinnamon. I think it just gives it the right amount of flavor and plus it is really easy to do. I mean, this is a great thing to make when people are coming over for dessert and it looks very professional eventhough it’s so easy. So, we’re going to turn that off and take our Phyllo Dough and line it in the pan. And we’re going to just take our butter mixture and crush it while on top of the yufka. Now, see how it’s hanging over my tray just a little bit. That’s okay. You’re just going to fold it over inside. But, make sure you get the oil on the inside first because this allows it to rise really nicely. So, just fold it and then go over it again and you’re going to keep doing this until you’re about halfway through your yufka.
Now, what you could do is since you folded it over on the bottom first, do the same thing on the top. But remember; make sure you oil the top first. Try not to press it down because you want it to rise and be fluffy and flaky and don’t be afraid to use that oil. If you need more, you could always make more. So now, I’m going to fold it over here. So now, we’re getting to just about half of the sheet. I’m just going to finish putting this last one. Don’t be afraid to use the butter. Butter makes it light and crispy and flaky. Okay and now just take our walnuts, mix it up with the sugar and be generous with it because everybody loves a little bit of walnut crunch coming out of their Baklava. So, now let’s finish putting all the rest of our yufka.
We’re just going to keep doing this until all of our yufka is done. Now, when you get to the last two, instead of using the butter oil mixture, we’re going to use clean corn oil which I have right here. Just make sure that the top doesn’t burn or turn to dark brown because the color that you want is a golden brown and this coats it just nicely enough to cook but getting that golden color. So, I will do the last two with the clean corn oil and then, I’m going to show you how to cut it. Now, you could cut it many different ways. You could cut it just normal straight across but I like to cut it and make a diamond shape, like punch the Phyllo and cut across. Make sure you hit your knife all the way down to the bottom. And you know, this is home cooking so it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Now, while you’re cutting, this is a great time to make sure that your oven is pre-heating to 350 degrees. This cooks about 15 to 20 minutes. But of course, many ovens vary so just keep checking it. Once you see it turning that flaky, golden brown, then you know it’s ready. And then we’ll make our syrup and we’ll pour our delicious syrup over the Baklava.
Now, Baklava is best at room temperature. You don’t want to put it in the fridge because it’s going to get all syrupy and soggy. I can’t stress that enough. Room temperature for Baklava is fine. So, once you see you’re getting to the end of cutting your Baklava. This is how it’s supposed to look. See what I mean about the diamond shape. Just make it still look really pretty; almost restaurant style. Now, I’m going to put in the oven and let it baked.
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