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BAKLAVA
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Baklava is the delicious middle-eastern dessert. The first known
recipe for a baklava-like treat dates back to 1330 C.E. Culinary
historians believe modern baklava originated in the courts of the
Ottoman Turks, and indeed today it is found in the countries that
once made up the Ottoman Empire. It is said that the Turkish sultan
would present huge trays of baklava to his bodyguards every 15th of
Ramadan in a gaudy ceremony that became known as the Baklava Alayi.
Baklava is made by layering sheets of paper-thin phyllo dough, each
coated with butter. The butter keeps the dough from fusing together
during the baking process. Once half the phyllo is down, it is
covered with a mixture of crushed walnuts or pistachios, spices and
sugar.
The other half of the phyllo dough is then laid down on top,
again alternating with coats of butter. Before it is put into the
oven, the baklava is cut into the familiar diamond-shape pattern. |
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The baklava is then baked until the top layers of phyllo are golden
brown. Then comes the magic part: the baklava is then doused with a
hot syrup made either from sugar or honey. As the baklava cools, it
sucks this syrup in between the layers of phyllo. The result is that
scrumptious combination of sweetness, crunchiness and flakiness that
is the sign of perfect baklava. |
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Etymology
The word baklava entered English from Turkish; It is
sometimes connected with the Arabic word for "bean", but Wehr's
dictionary lists them as unrelated; the Arabic name is doubtless a
borrowing from Turkish. Buell (1999) argues that the word "baklava"
may come from the Mongolian root baγla- 'to tie, wrap up, pile up'
composed with the Turkic verbal ending -v; baγla- itself in
Mongolian is a Turkic loanword. The name baklava is used in many
languages with minor phonetic variations.
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