Name: Avis sur Baklava par hurkanakbiyik chez Şerifoğlu Café & Patisserie, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas
Item: Baklava
Rating: 3.7
Author: hurkanakbiyik

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.

Everything starts with the yufka. A dough of flour, egg, water and a little oil is rolled with a long thin oklava until it is translucent, a skill measured by whether newsprint can be read through it; a tray may hold forty layers, half below the filling and half above. Each sheet is brushed with sade yağ, clarified sheep's-milk or cow's-milk butter, which is what gives the baked pastry its colour and crispness and why margarine versions taste flat. The filling in Antep is pistachio from the region, ground fine but not to paste, sometimes with a layer of kaymak-like cream. The tray is cut before baking, baked at a moderate heat for forty-five minutes or so, and the syrup, sugar and water with lemon, boiled to a light thread, is poured over hot pastry so it is absorbed rather than pooled. A day's rest lets the layers settle.

Turn a piece on its side before you taste it: the layers should be visible, distinct and many, crisp on top and tender below, with the syrup soaked through but no liquid standing on the plate. It should shatter slightly, not bend. The nuts should be fresh and the dominant flavour, bright green in a pistachio baklava, with the butter close behind and the syrup last; a piece that tastes mainly of sugar has been drowned. Mark down soft, soggy layers, a greasy film, a stale or rancid nut note, honey or spices in a Turkish-style baklava, margarine, and portions so sweet that one piece is enough. Serve plain or with kaymak, never with cream or ice cream. A good Antep baklava is eaten in two bites and followed by a second piece, which is the real test.

Baklava

Netherlands

Şerifoğlu Café & Patisserie

A classic baklava with pistachios. Pretty nice. Crunchy and full of pistachios.

For me it has some sugar that annoys you after second bite. It needs more butter.

There are better places in Turkey but for the Netherlands this is acceptable.

Avis sur Baklava par hurkanakbiyik chez Şerifoğlu Café & Patisserie, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas

Baklava

Şerifoğlu Café & Patisserie

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