lundi 25 août 2014

Sweeten Up Your Life With Baklava

By Deanne Shepard


When you crave for something really moist and sweet, try this traditional eastern specialty. Once, the great part of Europe was part of Ottoman Empire. In these parts, baklava is still prepared and served in all special occasions. It is made of nuts, sugar and layers of very thin pastry called phillo or filo, with the addition of spices such as cinnamon, cardamom and cloves, refreshed with some lemon juice.

Phillo sheets should be sized to fit your pan. For making one rich cake maybe twenty sheets are needed. Every sheet should be coated with oil or with melted butter. You should place three to four coated sheets in your pan first, and then sprinkle everything with coarsely ground or finely chopped nuts adding a small spoon of cinnamon and some other spices of your choice.

Sugar syrup is also simple to make. Three cups of sugar and one and a half cups of water should be cooked until become syrupy. You should also add some lemon juice and cinnamon in it. It is possible to replace one part of sugar with some other sweetener, usually honey, and to add other spices such as cloves.

Once done, the cake should be cut to diamond shapes or cubes, using a sharp knife. Finishing layer needs to be sprinkled with water. Bake in preheated oven for approximately half an hour, on 180 degrees. Sugar syrup should be cooled and poured over hot cake. Few hours later, your cake is ready to be served.

Although walnuts, pistachios and hazelnuts are mostly used for this purpose, you may use almonds, macadamia nuts or any other type of nuts. In some parts of the world they add dry fruits, for example apricots or dates as well. They generally use four cups of nuts for filling, but it is nice to add more filling, if you prefer richer cakes. Cloves and cardamom taste very nice in these combinations.

Other spices and aromas are also welcome. Orange zest and juice, vanilla, rum, apricot liqueur and lime will make your own recipe especially interesting. Sugar is often partially replaced with honey. This cake is really very sweet, but if you use lighter syrup, it just won't be the same. It should be very sweet and really moist.

One very interesting and irresistibly tasty version is made with the addition of chocolate. The recipe is basically the same, although you might prefer different spices, for example vanilla. When you are making sugar syrup, you should add maybe 200 grams of chocolate before pouring it over your hot cake. In this case the syrup doesn't have to be cooled, but you still need to cool the cake before serving it.

Another really delicious version includes two cups of ground almonds, two cups finely chopped almonds and two cups of finely chopped apricots. The preparation is the same, but you can add some apricot liqueur in your syrup, together with some vanilla and lime or orange juice. Very interesting combination you will surely enjoy in.




About the Author:



Aucun commentaire:

Enregistrer un commentaire