Transcripts
1. Welcome to the Class: Do you want to know how to make a delicious authentic
Turkish Baklava to impress your
family and friends? Then stick around. My name is Melissa Kuman. I'm also known as The
Delicious Nutritionist. I really enjoy teaching people authentic recipes
from all around the world, but also to coach people on a one-to-one level to
transform their health. On my YouTube channel, The Delicious Nutritionist, I did some Turkish
cooking videos and people really enjoyed it. It inspired me to create my own set of classes
on Skillshare. Now today, we're going
to be learning how to make Turkish Baklava, which is thin buttery layers of pastry sandwiched with
nuts and soaked in syrup. It is so good, I'm sure
you'll really love it. In Turkey, they often have it
as a mid-morning snack with a strong cup of coffee or in the afternoon
with a cup of tea. Now, whether you are a pro baker who just wants to
try a new recipe, or whether you've never
really baked before and you want a step-by-step guide, beginner's guide to Baklava, then you will really
enjoy this course. Not only will you get step-by-step high-quality
video demonstrations, but you'll also
have my support in the comments and also resources. I really look forward
to welcome you as a student and I'll
see you very soon.
2. Equipment: Let's get started on
what equipment we need. First of all, we need
some scales because that's really important to measure out all the ingredients. We're going to need a bowl
and this is so we can mix the nuts and with
the honey and cinnamon. A tablespoon to help
mix the mixture. A baking tray, now I'm using a
nine-inch by 13 inch, two-inch depth to
cook the baklava. You can also use circular
dimensions as well. To protect the tray, we also going to need
baking parchment so you don't scratch
the non-stick. A spatula is very useful to get all the honey and the
mixture out of the bowl. You will need a
nice sharp knife, one to chop the nuts, but also to cut the baklava. Now, if you aren't so
confident with the knife, you can also use a
bag and a rolling pin to smash up the walnuts
and pistachios. When we come to cook it, foil is very handy
to make sure that the baklava doesn't get too burnt and stays a
nice golden color. Scissor are quite useful to
cut the foil if you prefer. What is actually
really essential as well is a pastry brush, so this is what we're
going to use to brush the butter oil mixture onto
each filo pastry sheet. You'll also need a saucepan, this is so we can melt the
butter and oil together and brush it in between
the filo pastry layers. In the next module, we will talk about the ingredients we need.
3. Ingredients: Now let's talk about
the ingredients, which is the most important
part of this course. You can split the ingredients
into three components. The first component
is the phyllo pastry. I'm using the ready-made
phyllo pastry. I've got two packs of 270 grams of the
thin phyllo pastry. You just unwrap it and
it unfolds nicely. They've all got a sprinkling of flour on so you don't have
to worry about it sticking, but it's a lot easier than
doing it from scratch. But let me know if you do make the phyllo
pastry from scratch. I will be very impressed. The next component
is the nut mixture. We're using 200 grams of pistachios and 100
grams of walnuts. You can use all of it as
walnuts or pistachios. Or we can experiment with
different nuts like almonds. But my favorite type of
baklava is the pistachio. Now it can be a bit expensive, particularly if you buy
the deshelled pistachios. You could just buy the
shelled pistachios and then manually take them out yourself with your hands to save costs. With the honey-nut mixture, you also need three
tablespoons of honey. I'm just using runny honey. You need a pinch of
cinnamon for flavor. The last component
is the honey syrup. You need 300 gallons of water, 300 grams of golden
caster sugar, and 100 grams of honey. Again, you can just
use the runny honey, and then we're going to add
a squeeze of lemon juice in that to stop the mixture
from crystallizing. That's why that is in there. Lastly, in-between the
phyllo pastry layers, we are going to
mount 130 grams of unsalted butter and half
a cup of vegetable oil. This is just so
we're going to brush over each of the phyllo pastry. There are many different
shapes and flavors of baklava. I don't know whether
you've been to Turkey and experienced
it yourself. But I'm going to show you the most simple baklava
which is the rectangles. Now you can experiment with diamond shapes and lots
of different shapes, but rectangle is the shape I'm going to teach
you in this class.
4. Prepping Baking Tray: So welcome. We're going to prep
our baking tray now. As I said, I've got
a baking tray that is nine inches by 13
inches by two inches. So it's a nice size. You don't really need
a baking parchment, but if the non-stick is coming off or you want
to protect your pan, then it might be worth putting
on some baking parchment. All you have to do,
you can just put this on top and measure it. You can go a bit
over than the base, so overlap the size if you want. But just roughly cut out the
size of the baking tray. Doesn't matter if it's messy, you can tidy up if you want to. But we're just going to put
this down on the base here. Now, what I recommend is to
actually put a little bit of grease before you add the baking parchment so it
sticks down onto the tray. If you have any
leftover butter packet, you can put some
on there or just rub in a little bit
of vegetable oil. That's what I'm going to do now. You can just get a bit
of softened butter, and some tissue just to glue the baking paper down
so it doesn't fold up and it's nice and easy when
you do the phyllo pastry. You can do a bit on the
sides as well, like that. Then we can just stick
this down onto the base. Get it. This is just to protect
the non-stick of the tray. This is already to start
layering phyllo pastry. In the next module, I'm going to show you how to
prepare that nut filling.
5. Nut Filling: Great. Welcome to
the next module and now you all prepared with your baking tray we can
make the nut filling. As I said, we're going
to need 200 grams of pistachios and 100
grams of walnuts, but you can just use 300
grams of your favorite nut. You have two options,
you can use the knife and make a rocking action
and chop the nuts that way, you could use a food processor or you could use a bag and a rolling painter to
smash up the nuts. The angle is to
have minced nuts. We don't want to dust, we don't want it whole nuts, we want kind of mince
and this is going to go into the middle
of the back cover. I'm going to try up
the smashing way with the rolling pin to
get the minced nuts. I'm just using a Ziploc bag, you might have to
do it in batches, but I'm just going
to put the nuts in the bag and start smashing
it with a rolling pin. Make sure you get the air out
and then you can zip it up, get the rolling pin, [NOISE] and move the
end of the rolling pin just smashed up [NOISE]. I find that doing it this way is the best better than knife, It seems to be a
longer process using your knife and you just
want to keep going, you can check the bag now
and again and just smash any big pieces [NOISE]. I think that looks really good. This is the finished
result of what you want. You can put it back in the
bowl when you're done. But as you can see, it's kind of minced nuts. Now, we can do the pistachios. Make sure your pistachios are disheveled and you
want 200 grams. I love the green and purple
colors in the pistachios, I think it's so pretty. Again, make sure you
get all the air out, make it kind of flat, and smash it up [NOISE]. Once you've minced
up your pistachios, you can add it to the walnuts. It's kind of minced and the big pieces feel free to
chop them up with a knife, just to make sure that
there's no big chunks. When you've got
something like this, is quite big so you
can just use a knife. Just chop it up into
smaller pieces, so you want it
kind of this size. If you shake it up, all the big pieces
will come to the top, and then any big pieces
you can just take out, and chop up [NOISE]. Once you're happy
with the nut mixture, now we need to add
pinch of cinnamon and three tablespoons of honey and we're just going
to stir that in. The pinch of cinnamon, we are going to add some ******, if you already don't
like cinnamon, that's okay, you
don't have to add it, you could also experiment with the ground cardamom or ground clove, If you
don't like cinnamon. Then we're going to add
three tablespoons of honey, just drizzle it on top. This is going to add
a bit of sweetness to the nut mixture and you've also got all that lovely syrup
at the end as well, which we're going to
add into the pastry. We can just give that stir; just to combine the
honey and with the nuts. It smells so good, I love all that
cinnamon in the air. This is going to be all enough filling inside the back cover. Now you could also add
just a pinch of salt, that is on that mixture, now in the next
module we're going to learn about how to layer up the feeder pastry and
we're going to make that melt the butter
and oil together. I'll see you in the next class.
6. Layering and Assembling the Filo Pastry: Now we're on to the fun bit. We're going to be laying
at the filo pastry and mounting the butter and oil. You need 130 grams of butter. I'm using unsalted into the source pan and half
a cup of vegetable oil. We're going to melt this slowly
and then this is going to be the fat in-between
the pastry. [NOISE] I'm going to put
this on no heat, more medium heat, and we can always turn
it down if needs be, or we're just going
to melt this slowly. While this is melting, we can prepare and
trim off filo pastry. Unwrap the filo pastry, you need two pack of 270 grams. Then what we do is we can
measure up with the tray. We want to try and get it. I would need to trim the
width and also the length. I'm just going to do that now. With your knife just trace around the
outside, and also here. You can just trace it
and then to make it easy you can remove the tray
so you can cut it properly, [NOISE] so it fits
nicely into the tray. I want me to keep the big part of filo
pastry so we can use this, we can use two panels to
make it fit into the tray, but with the ends you can
just throw this part away. We wouldn't need this, but with the smaller
parts we can put them side-by-side onto the tray
to make an extra layer. You can turn down the butter
and oil so it doesn't burn, [NOISE] and you'll
see that the butter gives off the white bubbly part. We want to try and
avoid this bit as that can burn
easily in the oven. I'm just going to give that
stuff and we're going to use our brush tool to
put on the filo pastry. Once that's melted
we can turn it off and we can start
assembling our baklava. What we need is the big
part of filo pastry and we're just going to
put the first layer down. What you can do is you can put a little bit of butter on top of the grease proof just
to hold it in place. For every two layers
of filo pastry, we're going to add
a layer of butter. We're going to add
filo pastry there, and then we can add another
layer of filo pastry. Then we're going to
add a layer of butter. Once this pack of filo
pastry is finished, then we're going to
add the mixture. I added my two layers
of filo pastry there. Now what you can do is
just using a spoon, drizzle some of the
oil and butter mixture onto the filo pastry and
then with the brush, just gently brush it in. You don't want pools of butter, you don't want to
overload the pastry, you just want a
nice layer on top. [NOISE] Now if you have a
slow to warm up, I do recommend to set
your oven to 150 degrees Celsius while we're laying the filo pastry so it
has chance to warm up. If your filo pastry
split, it doesn't matter, you can just clip it, stick it down and the fat
will hold it in place. Now I'm going to use
my smaller panel parts to fit it together. You can just experiment
and fit it all in. [NOISE] Now we're onto the last layers of filo pastry on
the first pack. Now we add the sweet
nut mixture on top. Let's assemble the
rest of back-overs. You've used half your pastry, one pack of 270 grams
and you've laid it, every two layers we've
added butter and oil, and now we're going to
add on nut mixture. We've used pistachio more nuts with some
honey and cinnamon, and we're just going to pull
the nuts onto the pastry. You can use your
spatula if you want to get everything out. We just going to
generally evenly distribute the nuts onto it. Make sure that every
spot is covered in nuts. When you serve it into
little rectangles, everyone's got a bit of nuts. You can use your spatula
to make sure that you get all the nuts off the spoon. There we have it,
that's our nuts and now we can continue layering
the pastry on top. I'm putting all butter
on all mixture on top. Next pack of filo pastry. Just like before we're
going to use our tray to cut the white
shape of filo pastry. Open out nice and gently, should be pretty easy to do. Try and get them all
lined up nicely. Then with your knife, roughly trace the line
where it needs cutting, [NOISE] and then
you can trim it. I'm going to cut it this way. I'm going to save the end
panel for the final layers, and then I'm going to
trim a bit off the edge. You don't need to put any
butter on top of the nut, you can just start
layering the top. Drizzle some butter and oil
on top and gently brush over. Try not to get any pools of liquid and make sure that
it's nicely distributed, and now the two layers. You just keep going until all your filo pastry is used up. Well done, you have
assembled your baklava. Now we're going to cut it into squares before
it goes in the oven. Dip any oil on your
last sheet yet, we're going to cut it first. I'm going to do the rectangle. You want that much little
square portion sizes. With your knife,
just start cutting down pastry through the nut
layer down to the bottom. This is why you
grease spill paper is important so you
don't scratch the tray, and do even columns down. Ours is about four columns. Then we go the other way. You can flip your
tray round and just make rectangles or squares down. Becoming a bit tricky
with the nut layer, but just try your best. Use a nice sharp knife. You can experiment using
diamond shapes as well. [NOISE] Once you have roughly
cut them into squares, you're going to use some
of the leftover oil. You don't need to use all of it, but remember try to
avoid the white part of the butter as this bands
and we're just going to gently drizzle it over nice and evenly some of the oil
butter mixture on top. Then with your brush
generally just evenly distribute the oil on
top, like this, like that. Now we're going to set
it up into 150 degrees C and we're going to put this in the oven for an hour
and 20 minutes. The first 50 minutes, we don't need anything
to put on top, but in the last remaining times, in the last half an hour, we're going to put
some foil on top so the top doesn't burn. We should want nice
cooked layers, golden on top, crispy. Let's see how it turns out. I'll see you in the next module.
7. Syrup: So, let's make the
famous baklava syrup. We will need 300 grams
of golden caster sugar. I'm going to put
that in the pan. We need 300 grams of water. We'll need 100 grams
of runny honey. Put this into the pan. Now, we're going
to turn the heat on and we're going to boil it. Once it's boiled, we're then going to turn it
down to medium heat. Let that cook for five minutes. Once it's boiled, I recommend not to stir it
because it might crystallize, but don't worry, [NOISE] because that's what
the lemon's here for. We're going to add a
teaspoon of lemon juice and this is going to stop
the crystallization process. So, we can turn the
heat on medium-high. I'm going to let that boil, add a teaspoon of
lemon juice to stop the crystallization and then we're just going to
give that a stir to dissolve all the sugar. We can just stir that and all the sugar will
dissolve in the water. Once it's boiled, we can
turn it down to medium-high. Now, the reason why we're
making this syrup now, is so when the
baklava comes out, it will be nice and
hot and we'll pour the hot syrup over
the hot baklava. That's going to keep
it nice and crispy. All the syrup will
absorb into the layers. It's best to let it soak for at least an hour or overnight
for the tastiest results. You can tell when the sugar
is dissolved because you wait for the [inaudible]
glutinase in the pan. It would just be like water. Now for flavor, you can
add orange blossom water. This is optional, but I think it adds an extra
dimension to the syrup. So, I'm going to add
two teaspoons now of orange blossom flavor [NOISE]. You can see now the
syrup is boiling, so I'm going to turn
it down to medium high and just let that simmer gently. Depending on how slow your gas is you might want
to turn down a bit lower and just let that
cook for five minutes. You don't want to
stir at this point because of ways that might
cause crystallization. So, we'll just wait, set a time, five minutes and then
your syrup is ready.
8. Decoration: While our syrup is
still boarding, what we can do is
prepare the decorations. Remember I talked about you can sprinkle it with pistachios or walnuts on top and it
will stick to the syrup. It's a lovely little decoration. I've just grabbed myself
a handful of walnuts. I think pistachios would
work really nicely as well. You can just chop
it up or bash it with the rolling pin light
before till it's minced, and then this will be
a lovely decoration to put on top of
your back cover. I'm just using a chopping motion and one hand on the
point to steady it. [NOISE] Once your syrup is done, just leave it to the side. We'll pull that as soon as
the back of those out of the oven it's been one
hour and 20 minutes. This had 50 minutes of cooking
at 150 degrees Celsius, and then for the last half an
hour we've put foil on top. Let us see what it looks
like out of the oven. This is the finished baklava. It's come out of the tray. You can see it's
nice and golden. Now we're going to
add the syrups. This is what's going
to keep the baklava nice and moist, nice and gooey. We're just going to ladle the
hot syrup over the baklava. [NOISE] We don't want to add too much syrup, just enough to soak it. If you don't add enough syrup, it'll go quite dry. You can just gauge how
much syrup you want. I'm going to add a good
few handfuls on top. I'll slowly add it and it will absorb all the lovely hot syrup. [NOISE] Once you've done that, you should allow
it to cool down. Wait one hour, let the syrup absorb, let it cool down, and
then you can serve it with a sprinkling
of nuts on top. Well done. You have
created your baklava. Now I'm going to talk
about how to store it.
9. How To Store your Baklava: How to store your baklava so
when it comes out the oven, you can sprinkle it with
some pistachios on top, it looks really pretty, and you can cut through
those layers so they're more precise now it's
come out of the oven and just let it cool
before you serve. We have baklava when it's cold. In order to store it, I recommend putting it in
an airtight container, and the good news is
that it lasts two weeks. You can keep it in the
fridge if you'd like it more chewy and soft or if
you'd like it more crisp, you can keep outside the fridge. You can also freeze baklava for up to four months as well. You can freeze it
in small batches so you don't need to
defrost the whole tray. It makes a lovely present to
send to friends and family, or perhaps you're going
to a dinner party, you can take some
baklava with you. I think they'll be really
impressed that you've made such a different
type of desert. That's how you store
your baklava properly.
10. The Class Project: Congratulations, you've completed the ultimate beginner's guide to baklava. I hope you're really proud of yourself and it
tastes really good. For your class project, no surprise here, I would like you to make your own baklava by following all these
step-by-step instructions. It would be great
if you could take a photo of it and post it, I would love to see
your creations. Whether you take a photo
of the finished products or in the middle of the recipe, it'll be great to see your work. Feel free to put your
own creator spin on it. Maybe use almonds, maybe you
use 100 percent walnuts, maybe you cut it into
the diamond shape. I'd love to see your spin
on the Turkish baklava. Do post your photos and I'd love to know
how you're getting on.
11. Final Thoughts: Hi everybody. Well done
for completing the course. It means a lot that you've
watched this from start to finish and joined me on
this baklava journey. You've learned how
to make a syrup, you've learned how to
do the nut filling, and you've also learned
some techniques on how to layer the phyllo pastry. I would love for you to stay connected with me on Instagram, on YouTube at The
Delicious Nutritionist. You're very welcome
to message me, DM me, let me know how
you found the course. Do leave a review, a comment in the discussion, and on the course. I very much look forward to
seeing you in another class, and I'll see you soon hopefully. Take care. Bye.
Melissa Kuman, The Delicious Nutritionist
