Where the Baklava Monster frolics.

In thinking about how to researching the history of Baklava, I was preparing myself to have to search to the depths of cyberspace to find anything on its origins. Little did I know that it actually has quite an extensive history. To help me out with my research Michael Krondi, author of Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert gives a good layout of the desserts past.

 Baklava is primarily Turkish in origin yet its roots can be traced back to Biblical times with the Israelites baking of "unleavened bread 'yufka', milk and honey,"(80).  In Krondi's book she mentions that  Pistachios were cultivated in Babylon around the 700 BC, (80).

Around 1450, a Turkish mystic poet wrote about a layered pastry "filled with almonds and lentils" (79).  On its journey of 'becoming' Baklava was written about by a Baghdadi poet by the name of Ibn al-Rumi. He described it as "more delicate than the morning breeze and as thin as the inner skin of the eggshell of locusts' wings." (81). Kind of a weird visual but ok.

In Istanbul around Sixteenth-century the process to make Baklava (because of its high standing) became much more of an art form. Baklava at the time was the dessert of kings or of those who had extreme wealth. The chief chefs of the king would make it 100 layers thick... 100 LAYERS!! and as delicate and "insubstantial that a coin dropped from a two-foot height would supposedly pierce every layer right down to the tray," (83). 

  

WOW, that is a lot of very thin dough. Actually, this just in, I just found out from Mary Isin, the author of Sherbet and Spice: The Complete Story of Turkish Sweets and Desserts that sometimes it was even one thousand layers thick!!  No I am not planning on making mine that dense thankfully but wow, they really got enthusiastic about this stuff. 
 

Now at the Güllüoglu factory in modern day Turkey, the tradition of Baklava continues.  The owner Fatih stated in Krondi's book that "Baklava is an art" and I believe that he is right. It takes patience, and a lot of training to make.  In Fatih words, it is "like a university, [taking] years to learn," (76).
In the interview Fatih goes into quite some detail concerning the process of Baklava making.  Huge rolling pins are used to press the dough down into thin sheets. Under the watchful eye of a skilled employee, corn starch is applied and reapplied by hand to help the dough become super thin. This person also knows when the dough needs more corn starch to help the Baklava turn out more 'pastry' then the brittle strictly commercialized versions (76). According to Krondi, Baklava is suppose to 'have a crispiness that entirely transcends the chewy, and often soggy, Baklava found in the United States" (77). Again, wow, it is crazy how something we eat and enjoy can be actually so inferior to the real thing. Anyway here is some more info on my timeline for this project.

To begin, I am planning on making my first batch this weekend and then from there probably the second batch next week and to top it all. AND I MEAN ALL!!! The final version will be done around the date of our "show and tell" class, or at least that is the hope. YEAAA. and here is a unicorn, just in case you where wondering what a canadian rendition of Baklava will look like.