Baklava is one of the most popular desserts of Turkey. It is a highly sweet dessert which has a special dough and syrup called ‘serbet’. It is very traditional to bring Baklava from Turkey for foreign people. Also, in Turkey, people bring Baklava to their family and friends in various occasions. Baklava is also a traditional dessert for gatherings and Bayram celebrations. Generally, modern Turkish people buy Baklava from shops, but many people still make it at home. It is better when an experienced mother or grandmother makes it at home.

Ingredients

- 5 glasses of flour

- 3 eggs

- 1 glass of milk

- 1 glass of sunflower seed oil

- 1 pack of baking powder

- 1 coffee spoon of vinegar

- ½ tea spoon of salt

To roll the dough in thin sheets and for between the sheets

- 1.5 glass of corn starch

- 250 grams of melted butter

- 3 glasses of crushed walnut

For the syrup

- 3.5 glasses of sugar

- 3.5 glasses of water

- ½ coffee spoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the servings

- ½ glass of pistachio powder

Preparation

1. Put the flour in a deep mixing bowl. Make a deep pool in the middle of the flour with your finger. Put the eggs, milk, sunflower seed oil, baking powder, vinegar and salt in the pool.

2. Mix the ingredients slowly and make them into a dough. Put a wet cloth around the dough and let it rest for an hour in room temperature.

3. Split the dough into 20 equal pieces. Roll the dough into very thin sheets. Make them as thin as possible without breaking them. Use corn starch while rolling them.

4. Put all the sheets on top of each other and continue rolling.

5. Melt the butter in a small pot and oil between the sheets.

6. Oil the bottom of the baking tray with the butter. Spare the best two sheets for the bottom and the top.

7. Put 10 sheets of dough in the tray on top of each other; spread melted butter on them during this process.

8. Spread walnut on top of these 10 sheets.

9. Put the rest of the sheets on top of each other on the trey; don’t forget to spread melted butter between the sheets. Push the sides of the sheets towards the bottom of the trey with a knife.

10. Slice the Baklava in a diagonal shape. Spread the leftover melted butter on top of the sheets. Put the trey in the preheated oven in 180 degrees for about 50 minutes.

11. To prepare the syrup, mix the sugar with water in a deep pot and boil the mixture about 25 minutes. After adding the lemon juice in the boiling mixture, take it off the cooker.

12. After the Baklava is cooked in the oven, pour the syrup slowly over the tray. Serve the Baklava with pistachio powder spread on it.