Monday, June 25, 2007

Burma Baklava (Twisted Baklava)

Hi all,

We’re starting with delicious traditional Turkish Burma Baklava :) I know y’all very curious about the recipe. Now, it is time to reveal the top secrets about Burma Baklava. Don’t worry it is not that hard. It just takes a little bit time, but the final taste will make you forget the time you spend for preparation. In Turkey, we have different kinds of Baklava. Burma Baklava is one of them. Hopefully, we will give more recipes about the other kinds in the future. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 rolls of phyllo dough (1/2 of a package of phyllo dough)
4-5 cups of chopped walnut (not too chopped, the parts should be at least as big as sweet peas)
2 sticks of unsalted butter
3/2 cups of sugar
3/2 cups of water
1/2 tbs fresh lemon juice

First, take out the phyllo dough from the freezer at least two hours before you begin. If you forget to take it out or just decide to cook Baklava, don’t worry, you can defrost it using a microwave. However, you should be careful if you use microwave. We want the dough just defrosted, but not hot and melted. Take two sheets of dough and put it on a table. Scatter 3-4 tbs of chopped walnut to every place of dough like I do in the picture (picture 2). By the way, you can just click on the picture below to expand it :). Then, wrinkle the dough by using your fingers (picture 3), bring the sides to the middle (picture 4). Then bring two opposite sides together on top (picture 5). Twist it, like you are sharpening a pencil by using sharpener, starting from the right by using your right hand and support the dough by using your left hand. It will look like picture 6. Then put the twisted dough in a pyrex or in a deep baking tin.

Apply the same procedure to remaining dough. After you finish this step, cut the dough inti small pieces as in picture 8. Then, put butter in a pan and melt it. After it is melted, continue heating it. Butter will begin to boil. Boil it for 5 minutes. During this time, mix the butter with a spoon. Then pour the melted butter onto twisted dough equally. Put the tray in a preheated oven. The heat should be 325F. Cook it until the color of the dough becomes brownish (picture 9). After the dough is cooked, you can start to prepare its syrup. Put sugar and water in a pan and heat it. After it begins to boil wait 5-6 minutes. Then pour the lemon juice and boil it one more minute. Turn off the heat and wait just 5 minutes, During this 5 minutes, the syrup will be cool down a little bit. Then pour the syrup onto dough equally. Don't forget, the dough should be cold or warm but not hot while you're pouring the syrup. Wait at least an hour for dough absorbs the syrup. Burma Baklava is ready to serve. Bon appetite!