Baklava

Forty paper-thin sheets of dough, brushed with clarified butter, layered around a bed of ground pistachios or walnuts, cut into diamonds or squares, baked until gold and then flooded with hot syrup: baklava is the pastry the Ottoman kitchens perfected and the whole former empire still argues over. Gaziantep, in south-eastern Türkiye, has the strongest claim to the modern version; its pistachio baklava was registered as a protected geographical indication by the EU in 2013, the first Turkish product to get one. Greece makes it with walnuts, honey and cinnamon; the Levant with pistachios or cashews and orange-blossom syrup; the Balkans with walnuts and a heavier hand with syrup. Within Türkiye the family includes şöbiyet with cream, havuç dilimi cut in carrot-shaped wedges, and dürüm rolled rather than layered.