Greek Baklava Recipe

I don't much care were it comes from - though it may be interesting, I think this tastes great and is so simple to make - even my children enjoy bashing up the nuts!!!(wrapped in teatowel and bashed with meat tenderisor!) also making shapes out of filo - which can be a bit fiddly but Dad loves helping with this bit.So we all contribute and love to eat.

baklava is turkish sweet.not greek ...I am from gaziantep.this is the center of baklava.I like it

I hate that I need to that but still.... Baklava is not a freek desert. I don't know of course if there is any well known producer in Greece but all baklavas I ate in Thessolonika was exported from Istanbul. Baklava is a Turkish desert.

Baklava is a great Greek dish. I like it.

Thanks shanti for these useful informations about baklava! Really now this page can be called " Baklavapedia"

Baklava is considered an aphrodisiac due to the honey and pistacios- Read on to find out why. he Assyrians are said to have originated baklava around 8th century B.C. as they were the first known to put together a few layers of thin bread dough, with chopped nuts in between those layers, added some honey and baked it in their primitive wood burning ovens. This earliest known version of baklava was baked only on special occasions. In fact, historically baklava was considered a food for the rich until mid-19th century. In Turkey, to this day one can hear a common expression often used by the poor, or even by the middle class, saying: "I am not rich enough to eat baklava and boerek every day". There are many regional variationsin Greece, Turkey, former Yugoslavia, The Greek seamen and merchants traveling east to Mesopotamia soon discovered the delights of Baklava.They brought the recipe to Athens. The Greeks' major contribution to the development of this pastry is the creation of a dough technique that made it possible to roll it as thin as a leaf, compared to the rough, bread-like texture of the Assyrian dough. In fact, the name "Phyllo" was coined by Greeks, which means "leaf" in the Greek language. My son-in-law's mother who is a chef from the former Yugoslavia (born in Croatia) makes phyllo dough so paper thin rolling it ut on the dinning room table. She also makes a borek dough which is a touch thicker and it is often filled with meat or potato and or cheese. Armenian, Greek, Persian, Egyptian, Assyrian and occasionally Serbian, Hungarian or even French chefs were brought to Constantinople, to be employed at the kitchens of the wealthy. These chefs contributed enormously to the interaction and to the refinement of the art of cooking and pastry-making of an Empire that covered a vast region to include the Balkans, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Persia, Armenia, Iraq and entire Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa and the Mediterranean and Aegean islands. Towards the end of 19th Century, small pastry-shops started to appear in Constantinople and in major Provincial capitals, to cater the middle class, but the Ottoman Palace have always remained the top culinary "academy" of the Empire, until its end in 1923. There's a special reason for baklava being the top choice of pastry for the Turkish Sultans with their large Harems, as well as for the wealthy and their families. Two principal ingredients, the pistachio and honey, were believed to be aphrodisiacs when taken regularly. Certain spices that were added to baklava, have also helped to fine-tune and to augment the aphrodisiac characteristics of the pastry, depending on male or female consumer. Cinnamon for females, and cardamom for males and cloves for both sexes. Shanti/Mary-Anne

Surely this is a kid friendly recipe. Baklava is a very popular dish in Greece and mediterranian region.I once heard that Gaziantep, a city in Turkey, is famous for its baklava and, in Turkey, is widely regarded as the native city of the dessert.The history of baklava is not well-documented; but although it has been claimed by many ethnic groups, the best evidence is that it is of Central Asian Turkic origin, with its current form being developed in the imperial kitchens of the Topkapı Palace. By the way , Greek baklava is a delicious dish. Thanks for posting this nice baklava recipe.