Baklava Azerbaijani

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   How to make Azerbaijani baklava? First of all, prepare the products for the filling. In total, 400 grams of walnuts (kernels) will be needed for baklava. Select whole halves and quarters for decoration, and chop the rest. In the photo, a special grater for nuts (it works on the principle of a meat grinder and grinds nuts without squeezing oil out of them). If you don't have one, then scroll through the nuts in a meat grinder or in a chopper.

2. Step 2:

   

   Chop a small part of the nuts into large crumbs. Mix all the nuts for the filling together.

3. Step 3:

   

   Add sugar to the nuts and mix. For the filling, also melt the butter in any convenient way and let it cool.

4. Step 4:

   

   Put a pinch of saffron in a warm teapot.

5. Step 5:

   

   Pour hot water and let it brew.

6. Step 6:

   

   Cook the syrup (in the homeland it is called sorbet). How to make syrup? Pour sugar into a saucepan and pour water for the syrup. Put on the fire, bring the water to a boil and boil the syrup until the sugar is completely dissolved.

7. Step 7:

   

   Prepare the sourdough. How to make sourdough? Heat the milk to a temperature of 37-38 degrees, add yeast, sugar and flour to it, mix. Cover the bowl with the sourdough and leave for 20 minutes.

8. Step 8:

   

   In a bowl for kneading dough (or in a bowl of a dough mixer), put all the liquid ingredients for the dough, salt and add the sourdough. Melt and cool the butter for the dough, or you can take vegetable oil instead.

9. Step 9:

   

   Add the sifted flour.

10. Step 10:

    

    Knead the dough.

11. Step 11:

    

    Knead the dough a little on the table until smooth.

12. Step 12:

    

    Put the dough in a bowl and leave to stand for 10-20 minutes. No need to wait for it to fit.

13. Step 13:

    

    Add saffron water from the teapot to the finished warm syrup (sorbet) (2-3 teaspoons of such water per cup of syrup). Stir and let it cool completely.

14. Step 14:

    

    Divide the dough into 14 parts, and then connect four of them in pairs. You will get 10 small koloboks and 2 large ones. Large — for the upper and lower layers.

15. Step 15:

    

    Lubricate the mold (baking sheet, frying pan) for baklava with butter (you can use margarine, but not vegetable oil).

16. Step 16:

    

    Roll out a large bun according to the size of the mold. This recipe is designed for a round shape with a diameter of 24-26 cm .

18. Step 17:

    

    Transfer the rolled layer to the mold and straighten the edges.

19. Step 18:

    

    Lightly brush the dough with butter (which you have previously melted and cooled, 200 grams).

20. Step 19:

    

    Sprinkle the dough with a little filling of nuts with sugar. The bottom layer is not heavily sprinkled and lubricated, so that if the dough breaks, the filling does not leak out and the baklava does not burn.

21. Step 20:

    

    Now, in turn, roll out all the small koloboks according to the size of the mold.

22. Step 21:

    

    Transfer to the mold, stretch to the edges, press against the lower layers.

23. Step 22:

    

    Brush with oil.

24. Step 23:

    

    Sprinkle generously with nut filling. Distribute the filling equally between all layers of baklava.

25. Step 24:

    

    Make the top layer from the second large bun. Roll out with a margin, cover the baklava, fill the edges nicely at the rim. The top layer does not need to be lubricated (yet).

26. Step 25:

    

    Cut the baklava first into 4 parts, then into 8.

27. Step 26:

    

    Then cut each piece separately, making cuts as in the photo, parallel to the cuts. So the same rhombuses are obtained.

28. Step 27:

    

    For a beautiful crust, add 1-2 tablespoons of saffron water from the teapot to the egg yolk and mix well. If there are lumps of yolk left, they will burn on baklava, it will be ugly.

29. Step 28:

    

    Smear baklava with egg yolk and saffron.

30. Step 29:

    

    Put a nut on each diamond and press it down a little.

31. Step 30:

    

    Now fill the baklava with the remaining 100 grams of butter. Spread the butter well over the baklava, tilting the mold, as when pouring pancakes into a frying pan.

32. Step 31:

    

    Put the baklava in a preheated oven and cook at 180 degrees for 40-45 minutes until golden brown. Cut the hot baklava along the lines, pour cold syrup (sorbet) and let it brew.

33. Step 32:

    

    You can celebrate, try and treat. Bon appetit!