ALBANIAN BAKLLAVA

Albanian Team

Bakllava is the Middle Eastern dessert par excellence, but it’s also part of Balkan traditions.
We chose this sweet because it is good, it is often cooked for religious parties.One day, a Ramadam’s day, my friends Abdyl, Adrian and I went to have lunch at an Albanian’s post which makes pizzas, kebabs and other traditional things from Albania. After eating, we decided to take a slice of bakllava, and we really liked it, for this reason we decided to choose this sweet, also because it is a traditional dessert in Albania.
The Baklava is a layered sweet of thin phyllo dough, just like leaves or sheets of paper, grated and leaned in a pan: chopped nuts
together with pistachios, are scattered over the various layers, which are then rolled and baked in the oven before being soaked with a solution of sugar and lemon juice or honey and spices with water.

Ingredients

- 500 gr phyllo dough
- 200 gr chopped nuts
- 150 gr crushed pistachios

- cinnamon powder
- 180 gr melted butter

Ingredients for the syrup
- 50 gr honey
- 450 gr sugar
- 300 ml water
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation
1-Prepare the syrup making it melt on the fire with water, honey and lemon juice. After a few minutes of cooking you will see that it becomes dense: take it out of the fire and cool it in the fridge.

2-Divide the dough into at least 12 parts and roll with the help of a rolling pin so that you get 12 thin sheets that you will lay in a rectangular.

3-Paint the first pie with melted butter and lay on top of another 5 sheets that will squeeze each with butter. On these first 6 layers sprinkle the crushed nuts and pistachios not too big; finish with powdered cinnamon powder. Cover everything with the other 6 sheets that will be scrubbed each, including the surface of the last, with the remaining butter.

4-Take a knife and cut the dough until it touches the bottom of the pan, diagonally in both directions to get rhombuses.

5-Bake at 180º for about 40 minutes until the dough is cooked well and is golden.

6-Take the baklava from the oven and pour over it the hot syrup.

GLOSSARY
phyllo dough: pasta of Greek origin made from flour, water, corn starch and sale, made of thin layers, of a consistency similar to that of a leaf, used in the kitchen for sweet and salty preparations.
syrup: a solution of sugar dissolved in water and often flavoured with fruit juice. It is used for sweetening fruit, etc.
cinnamon powder: a sweet-smelling spice made from the inner bark of Asian trees.