Turkish Walnut Baklava From Scratch
Make Turkish Baklava from scratch! No rolling one by one! With this easy method, you can make homemade crunchy baklava with different fillings. I will share all my experience and 12 tips to make it successful like a baklava master’s here in Turkey.
We are making homemade Turkish Walnut baklava. We are not going to roll out the dough one by one. Instead, I have an easy method for you. But lots of tips to make it successful. And you can see the layers even. So crunchy right now. It’s going to be delicious; let’s make it.
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3+½ flour I used 1 tbsp vinegar for extra crunchiness but it was better without it, the type of vinegar can differ. I would suggest try without vinegar then if you like ones more with and see the difference
- pinch salt
To pour over the phyllo sheets:
- 250 gr. butter we will melt and take out the foamy part after it
To roll out the phyllo sheets:
- 250 gr. wheat starch you can use corn starch if you can't find
For the walnut layers
- 350 gr. walnuts coarsley chopped
For the sherbet (syrup)
- 5 cups sugar
- 3+½ cups water
- 1 small lemon wedge
- 1 tsp lemon juice You can use less syrup first and add more after tasting if needed. The recipe amount is a bit more than enough.
Instructions
The Phyllo Sheet Dough
- In a mixing bowl add the wet ingredients.
- After the liquid ingredients, add 3+1/2 cups of flour and baking powder and knead my dough. Add more flour if needed.
- Cut the dough into three pieces and each piece into eight pieces. Shape them into balls
Shaping The Phyllo sheets
- Begin with the first batch; roll out into about 20 cm in diameter using only wheat starch. Make sure you are using starch.
- Between each layer, use plentiful starch. Make sure you have a nice coat of starch, and continue to roll out the other pieces. Do the same thing with the other sets.
- Beginning from the first one since it rested for a while, begin to roll out dough batch until it is bigger then the size of the pan. You can change flip a couple of dough pieces from time to time and see if it has enough starch between the layers; you can sprinkle more.
Placing Baklava Sheets Into Pan
- Cut the excess dough part; use them between the layers. Place the sheets to the pan
- After placing the first batch add half of the chopped walnuts to make a layer. Repeat the same process with the second batch, fill it with remaining walnuts.
- For the final top layer batch, seperate couple of thin sheets, and place back to give air between the layers. (Please wathc the video for more.
- Melt butter, collect the foam part after it is melted.
Cutting And Baking The Baklava
- Use a sharp knife and cut it in diamond shape (referrto the video ) with one move if possible so the layers won’t stick to each other
- Pour hot melted butter after cutting
- Bake the baklava at 170C degree for 30 minutes. Lower to 160C and continue to bake about 1 hour 15 minutes or until top and bottom has golden color.
The Baklava Syrup
- Boil sugar and water in a medium-size pan, lid closed. After it is boiled continue to boil for about 10-15 minutes until it thickens.
- Pour the sherbet from high above and check the final drops. The lots drops should be heavy or oozing, then we know it is thick enough.
- Por warm syrup over the baklava 5 minutes after it is out from the oven. Wait for 1 hour at least to soak the syrup and enjoy.