Baklava

It is time to visit some amazing place in the world again in the frame of Travelling around the World sharing Cultural Heritage, Folklore and Background. The land we are visiting today is encircled by different seas: the Aegean Sea to the west, the Black Sea to the north and the Mediterranean to the south. Also, the Sea of Marmara is located in the northwest. Terms associated to this country are the Anatolian Peninsula, the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits, Mount Ararat, Lake Van or the Cappadocia.

Hello Sibel and welcome to Penpalling & Letters! Thanks for taking part in our trips around the world! Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself and your penpalling activity?

Hello P&L readers! My name is Sibel and I am a teacher of English in her thirties. :) I come from Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, where I am living and working. Being creative and productive mean a lot to me. I am always serious and hardworking, not only at work but also in my personal life. I am addicted to discovering and learning new things. I believe rules and principles must be always in our all circles for the sake of people and the world as well.
I have been into penpalling just for two years as I lost my childhood contacts long ago! Thanks to Facebook I am into it again. :) When I was in secondary school, my English teacher led me to have penfriends. I like stickers, stationery, magnets, postcards, actually all cute stuff in penpalling! :) I am into postcards as well. My first pals sent me such nice postcards that I remembered my childhood hobby and started to collect them now. As a result I started to swap postcards which show city views only. I collect magnets as well.

And now it is time to share my home made Baklava recipe with you all!

Ingredients for the dough:

- One tea spoon of salt
- One spoon of vinegar
- One spoon of yoghourt
- Flour as needed
- Between sheets, 250g walnuts roughly chopped
- Onto the dough, one glass of mixed olive oil and butter (boiled at 100ºC)

Ingredients for the syrup:

- Two glasses of sugar
- Two and a half glasses of water
- One tea spoon of lemon juice

And now, the directions to do the home made Baklava:

1. Mix salt, vinegar, yoghourt and flour in the bowl.

2. Leave the dough to rest in a bowl for half an hour.

3. Then, roll out the dough by twenty sheets filo pastry which must be as thin as a paper is.

4. Lay ten sheets of filo pastry, one at a time into the tray.

5. In a clean bowl put the chopped nuts and spread the mixture over the pastry in the tray.

6. Layer up the ten remaining sheets on top of the nut mixture.

7. Using a sharp knife, cut this dough into small diamond-shaped pieces.

8. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat and add olive oil into it. Boil this mixture at 100ºC. When you drop it onto the dough, the dough must had been boiled for some time, too.

9. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

10. Place the baklava in the pre-heated oven for approximately 20 minutes, then decrease the oven temperature to 150ºC and cook for an additional half hour to 40 minutes, or until the pastry is slightly puffed and golden on top. Do not allow the top to burn. Remove and allow to cool slightly.

11. For the syrup, heat the sugar, water in a small saucepan and cook over a medium heat until the sugar has melted and a syrup is formed. Then, add lemon juice just before turning off the owen.

12. Pour the syrup into the baklava slowly and leave the baklava to cool.

And the tasty Baklava is done! After so much hard work, it is time to enjoy it!

Thanks for participating in Penpalling & Letters, Sibel! Let's try your recipe in our homes to taste your home made Baklava! Whenever you feel like participating again let me know!

If you are interested in reading more articles featuring characteristics of our homelands don't forget to check: Travelling around the World sharing Cultural Heritage, Folklore and Background.

I am always looking for people who would like to take part in this section of the Blog: Travelling around the World. If you would like to write about any aspects of your homeland don't hesitate to contact me at: penpallingandletters[at]gmail[dot]com and we will work on it!